Box Score The Waterloo Warriors men's hockey team deserved a better fate on Saturday night.

The Warriors ran into a hot goaltender, some bad luck, and some late penalty trouble en route to a 3-2 shootout loss at the hands of the Brock Badgers in front of a packed Columbia Icefield Arena on Saturday night in Waterloo.

Andrew Radjanovic scored a third-period power play equalizer, and added a gorgeous one-handed shootout goal that held up as the winner. Badgers goaltender Dalton McGrath was solid if not outstanding, as he turned away 50 Waterloo shots in the win. McGrath also had some help behind him, as the Warriors hit three goal posts throughout the evening.

Kain Allicock (Markham/) and Kirt Hill (Winnipeg/) notched goals for the Warriors, who fall to 9-7-4 on the season. Keaton Hartigan (Kitchener/) stopped 35 shots in regulation, but was beaten twice in the shootout.

The opening period was scoreless, but the timekeepers were far from bored – a total of seven minor penalties were assessed in the opening frame, including four consecutive calls against the Badgers. But the penalty killing units held up, and McGrath was perfect in his busiest period, making 22 saves in the opening twenty minutes.

The Badgers came out with more jump in the second period, and they drew first blood when Dylan MacEachern took the puck wide and flipped a wrister through the legs of a surprised Hartigan. The Warriors responded later in the frame when Allicock took a Brett Mackie (Whitby/) feed, spun, and fired low to beat McGrath five-hole from a sharp angle to tie the score at 1.

Hill put the Warriors up a minute later on the man advantage, when he crept to the front of the net and tipped home a Colin Behenna (Waterloo/) wrist shot in the slot. As tempers rose, the period ended with the Warriors up 2-1 after two.

The Warriors had a number of opportunities to extend the lead to 3-1 in the opening moments of the third period, but McGrath – and the iron behind him – once again answered the bell. With the Badgers on a power play and time ticking down to under six minutes remaining, Radjanovic burst in along the right wing and buried the puck top shelf to even the score at 2-2.

After the remaining moments of regulation and the five-minute overtime period failed to produce a winner, extra shots were needed. Radjanovic opened the shootout with an outrageous one-handed finish a la Peter Forsberg, and defenceman Daniel Tanel followed up with a blocker-side shot past Hartigan. Behenna and Andy Smith (Rosetown/) were both stopped by McGrath, and the Badgers earned the extra point.

The Warriors will now embark on the longest road portion of the schedule, starting off a string of six straight games away from home next weekend when they take on the York Lions on Thursday night before visiting the Guelph Gryphons on Friday.

Notes: The Warriors went 1-for-8 on the power play while the Badgers went 1-for-7…Brock sent three busloads of fans to the game, creating a playoff-like atmosphere at the Columbia Icefield Arena…Justin Larson (Buckhorn/) saw his ten-game point streak snapped in the loss.