Badgers set to face Gryphons
Things don’t get any easier for the Brock men’s hockey team.
Fresh off a two-game sweep of the rugged Windsor Lancers in the Ontario University Athletics West Division quarter-finals, the Badgers now face another tough opponent.
The Badgers travel to Guelph Thursday for Game 1 of their best-of-three semifinal playoff series to take on the Gryphons. Game 2 is at the Seymour-Hannah Sports Complex Friday at 7:15 p.m. Game 3, if necessary, is Sunday in Guelph.
“They are our arch-rivals,” Brock head coach Marty Williamson said. “They are a very hard-playing, well-coached, emotional team. They wear their hearts on their sleeves and play a lot like we do, that’s why it seems the games against them are so intense and nasty.
“It’s a very big rivalry. We play them in the Steel Blade game and that kind of kicks off each year.”
Williamson said it is vital the Badgers stay disciplined versus the powerful Gryphons, who led the league in goals and scored an average of almost two more per game than Brock.
“It’s keeping your composure. You can’t let something cost you a game with this being a two-of-three,” he said. “With these teams being so close, it’s just too much.”
The Badgers and Gryphons split four games this season.
“We need to keep them under control. The games we won were close games and if we play sloppy, they can expose you.”
The Gryphons did feature former Niagara IceDog Mikkel Aagaard, who had 22 goals in 28 games, but the speedy winger left the team recently to play pro in Europe.
“They lost their captain but they are still an extremely dangerous team,” Williamson said. “They did lose a piece but it didn’t seem to affect them. They scored six and five against Laurier.
“We have to make sure that’s not in our head that they lost their captain and they’re not very good. They have the depth to handle something like that.”
The Badgers looked good offensively themselves sweeping the Lancers, scoring 12 goals in the two games.
“For the first game, we played a very good game in Windsor,” Williamson said. “We played very good for 60 minutes and gave ourselves lots of opportunities. They second game we had an explosion in the third period but we didn’t play too well.
“The inconsistency has been biting us. If we play 60 minutes, we can play with anybody in this league. Our problem is as we advance I don’t think we can get as lucky as we did with Windsor where we basically played one good period and we were able to pull out the victory. Against a team like this, we won’t be down by two, we’ll be down by four and it will be too tough to come back.”
Having said that, Williamson feels the Badgers are peaking at the right time.
“I think we’re in a really good place. I feel as good as I have about this team all year,” he said. “I think our confidence is high. I think our guys are focused. I believe we are playing our best hockey. There’s a lot to like about us going forward.”
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