HOCKEY
- Gee-Gees/Golden Gaels: Ottawa winger Dan McDonald had a hat trick in a season-saving 4-3 win over Toronto. It was an odd day involving current and former Kingston Frontenacs in the nation's capital.
McDonald, an ex-Frontenac, scored twice in 72 seconds midway through the second period to help resuscitate the Gee-Gees; he scored the game-winner with 7:32 left. Strangely enough, while all this was happening, McDonald's former OHL team came back from two goals down to beat the Ottawa 67's 8-6. Crazy.
Ottawa needs only three points from its last three games, or less depending how Queen's does in its season finale Friday against the quintessential spoiler, RMC.
Queen's hopes practically rest on hoping Ryerson can upset either Ottawa or Toronto. The Varsity Blues just need a point eitherWednesday vs. a ranked Waterloo team or Friday vs. Ryerson.
The Gee-Gees' comeback on Sunday all but dashed Queen's hopes. Saturday, Brady Morrison made 25 saves and Scott Kenway got the lone goal in the first minute of the third to help Queen's squaeak by RMC 1-0 in the Carr-Harris Cup. The Gaels have earned nine-of-10 possible points, but they've almost run out of rocks.
The Gee-Gees women's team had a nice night Saturday, getting all their goals on special teams in a 3-1 win over St. Thomas, which is having a good season (11-4-4) in the Atlantic Conference. Ottawa will lose coach Shelley Coolidge and forward Kayla Hottot to World University Games commitments; Sun Media had a nice article on Hottot on Saturday. - Ravens: Carleton can clinch fifth place and a first-round matchup vs. either Concordia or McGill if it beats Ottawa on Tuesday. Their magic number is two.
Attention is due to Carleton's big Andrew Gibbons-Brandon Maclean-Ryan Berard line for accounting for three goals in Friday's 4-1 win at Concordia that clinched a playoff berth.
- Ravens: No real problems, with Stu Turnbull scoring a game-high 18 points Saturday in a 74-54 road win over Toronto. This was all about defence; Toronto had just 32 points after 30 minutes.
The night before, youngsters Cole Hobin and Kyle Smendziuk each scored in double digits in a 36-point win over Ryerson. - Gee-Gees: The bright spot of Ottawa's two road wins (80-72 over Toronto, 89-70 over Ryerson) was their 85.1% free throw shooting. Dax Dessureault totalled 37 points and 20 rebounds across the two games.
Ryerson's all-everything post player, Boris Bakovic, scored 26 vs. Dessureault, but he needed 19 shots and turned the ball over six times. When the big man needs that many touches, it's a win.
RMC pulled off something it's been on the precipice of for a while, ending their 128-game women's basketball losing streak Friday with a 64-61 win over York.
Attention must be paid. One can only imagine what it feels like for coach Brad Schur and his players, including two rookies from the Ottawa area, Abby Edmison, who had 14 points and 10 rebounds, and Samantha Bayne, who chipped in seven. Thirty-four-year-old masters student (and mother of two) Sharlene Harding had 25 points and 12 rebounds, both team highs, to contribute to the great night.
The only regret is that first win did not come before Jennifer D'Onofrio, completed her eligibility. Inch for inch, she was the toughest player in the OUA over her time in Paladins scarlet and white, playing the 4-spot at about 5-foot-6.
One can only imagine what must be running through the mind of Schur and some of his veterans such as Anna Dupuis and Julie-Christine Lasalle. Anyone who's played on a bad team for a while knows about the feeling of being resigned to your fate, trying to keep your head up against the long odds of ever winning a game. They probably feel like champs, and now that they've won once, hopefully it won't be too much longer before they pull off another victory.
Mike Koreen not only wrote a story about the win, but he sent in a tip on Friday the moment it happened.
- Gee-Gees: Ottawa's split in Toronto was productive, since they moved closer to a second-place finish in the OUA East. Kelly Weir had 15 points in the Ryerson game (67-61 for the Gee-Gees), while Hannah Sunley-Paisley narrowly missed double-doubles in each game.
Ottawa controls its destination for the playoffs. Win their final two home games next weekend vs. RMC and Queen's and they will host an OUA East semi-final, possibly vs. Carleton. You know the saying about how it's tough to beat a team three times in one season, but then again, Carleton's already beaten Ottawa twice, so they know what it takes.
A 40-point first half on defence and 31% shooting did in the Gee-Gees vs. Toronto. Hey, that means they'll go into the playoffs believing they can beat Toronto if they play their best game. - Ravens: Carleton has lost three of four since beating Ottawa in the Capital Hoops Classic, all close games, and will likely end up hosting Queen's in the 3 vs. 6 quarter-final.
Please keep in mind it would be the first home playoff game ever for a Carleton women's team. It must be teeth-grinding to have lost so many close games.
The Ravens will need help from Queen's next weekend to get a first-round bye, but at this rate one wonders how well they'd handle the Gaels. (Queen's is struggling in its own right. One wonders, looking at Brittany Moore's 4-of-19 shooting line vs. York, if teams are just defying the other Gaels to beat them.)
- Golden Gaels: The great CIS Football Recruiting Database has a list of Queen's prospective recruits. Granted, this is not the U.S. with Rivals.com, and there is something to be said for the schools who are hush-hush about their recruiting. The people with paying gigs can worry about that stuff. Queen's recruits include:
Jerod McCrory, linebacker: He played for Team Ontario in the Football Canada Cup and he's athletic enough to hold his own on the basketball team at Burlington Assumption, which is ranked No. 10 in Ontario by TheHoop-la. The message board buzz was that it was either the Gaels or Western for him.
Martin Colangelo, defensive tackle and Paul Miniaci, linebacker: Each of them helped St. Michael's College win successive Metro Bowl championships. They won the 2008 championship game by 30 points, topping the prediction of one Pat Sheahan, who had very diplomatically called a seven-point win.
Steve Dennis, Brent MacDonald and Andrew Surya, defensive backs: They each played at Burlington Notre Dame, last fall's Golden Horseshoe Bowl runners-up. Surya is listed as a running back but he did make the game-clinching interception playing cornerback in the regional semi-final. Dennis also kicked the game-winning field goal.
Curiously, all three were mentioned as headed to McMaster on cisfootball.org.
Josh Prinsen, offensive tackle: The Whig reported in December that Prinsen, a regular Toledo-tipper at 6-foot-7, 290 lbs., had interest from more than 30 U.S. schools, including some teams in the Ivy League. It sounds like he would be a good get. He's from Napanee, as is another promising Queen's lineman, Derek Morris. (The hometown has not done so well providing Queen's with football players, just super-fans who blog until 4 a.m.)
Andrew Mizzi, offensive tackle: He's 6-foot-3, 270 lbs., from Michael Power in Toronto. Beyond that, I got nothin'.
Matt Lapointe, offensive tackle: He helped St. Peter in Ottawa win the city championship last fall, so he comes out of a good program. - Kinger reports that $525 was raised for CFRC 101.9's funding drive during a special Offsides on Friday afternoon, where he interviewed CFRC alumni Neil Acharya of The Score (and OOLF), Richard Zussman of Citytv Edmonton (and cisblog.ca) and Calgary radio producer Peter Watts.
On behalf of Kinger, thank you. The final totals should become available some time this week. - Speaking of Rich Zussman, he has signed on cisblog.ca as its Western Canada reporter. He should increase the property values exponentially, although it is getting to be a real Queen's mafia (oh, and this site isn't?).
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6 comments:
This is nice to hear about a program that desperately needs some good news.....
Now, if only the men's team could achieve a miracle.
Ottawa pulled even again today. Tough break for Queen's hockey. I hope that Friday's RMC/Queen's game means something in the standings. That would be one heck of a game, especially after Paul Bradley vowed revenge after last night's 1-0 loss to the Golden Gaels.
Has anyone noticed that Aaron Doornekamp has been scoring less this year while his team leads the country in scoring?
It seems to me that after last year's loss to Acadia, in which Doornekamp shot the ball very poorly, Dave Smart has purposely de-emphasized his role in the Raven's offence.
Last year, Carleton scored a ton when Doornekamp had a great game but not so much when he didn't.
This year, it doesn't seem to matter if Doornekamp scored 25 or 10 points a game, as the Ravens still have managed to be extremely productive most nights.
Stu Turnbull has assumed the role of the go-to guy for Carleton.
If the Ravens are flourishing offensively without all-world performances from Mr. Doornekamp, that can't be good news for their opponents.
it means it's getting to be a real Queen's mafia
Finally the truth comes out: you only put up with me to satisfy the anti-Queen'smen forces.
And as a check on the Laurier guys.
Kinger would also point out that it better be Queen'speople, lest we all end up in the hoosegow.
Congats are in order this morning for Gee Gee Swimming coach Ian MacDonald. He was selected as the OUA swim coach of the year as he coached uOttawa to their best placing in the OUA championship in 30 years of existence.
I believe that Ian is 71 or 72 and has brought some real Grey Power to the Garnet and Grey.
OttawaFan
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