The Warriors season came to an abrupt end as they suffered a 7-4 loss to the Brock Badgers on Friday night in game two of the best of three series. Brock outscored the Warriors 4-1 in the first period en route to the series sweep.
Brock freshman Dylan MacEachern (Mississauga, Ont.) led the way with three goals and two assists for a five-point night. This was MacEachern's first career hat-trick.
Only 47 seconds into the game, Waterloo's Josh Woolley (Cambridge/) opened the scoring when he deflected a shot past Brock senior goaltender Kurt Jory (Brandon, Man.).
Brock tied the game 1-1 just two minutes later when MacEachern banged home a rebound. Seniors Ryan Allen (Fort McMurray, Alta) and Isaac Smeltzer (Estevan, Sask.) added the assists.
At 10:28, the Badgers took a 2-1 lead when Smeltzer fired a shot at Warriors goaltender Keaton Hartigan (Kitchener/) and he could not squeeze his pads to stop the puck from trickling over the goal-line. Assists went to Allen and MacEachern.
The Badgers took a two-goal lead when MacEachern scored his second of the night by stealing the puck behind the Waterloo net, sweeping out front and sliding the puck past Hartigan at 13:53.
With just over a minute left in the first period, MacEachern completed the hat-trick deflecting a point-shot from Smeltzer on a setup from Allen.
Waterloo replaced Hartigan with sophomore Justin Leclerc (Saskatoon/) in goal at the end of the first period.
The Badgers took a 5-1 lead at 9:51 of the second period when Smeltzer made a quick pass to sophomore Thomas Stajan (Mississauga, Ont.) at the side of the net, who buried a one-timer past Waterloo's Justin Leclerc (Saskatoon/).
The Warriors got right back into the game with two goals in the first three minutes of the third period by Chris Ray (Kelowna/) and Woolley.
At 16:27, the Badgers took a 6-3 lead when freshman Sean Jones (Newmarket, Ont.) added his first of the postseason with assists going to Stajan and freshman Eric Bonawitz (Lewiston, ME).
Less than a minute later, the Badgers increased their lead to 7-3 when MacEachern put a lead pass to junior Josh Schram (Paris, Ont.) who streaked down the wing and buried a snap shot past Leclerc.
The Warriors Jarrett Schnurr (Waterloo/) scored a goal in the last minute of play to make the final 7-4.
In goal, Jory recorded 14 saves for the victory. Hartigan suffered the loss after allowing four goals on 16 shots. Leclerc added 21 saves.
