The long bus trip down highway 401 didn't seem to bother either the Waterloo Warriors or Windsor Lancers men's hockey teams this weekend.
The Warriors and Lancers split their home-and-home weekend series, with the road team each claiming victory – the Warriors skated to a 4-2 win on Friday night in Windsor, while the Lancers escaped with a 3-1 win on Saturday night at the Columbia Icefield Arena.
The first game of the weekend set saw the Warriors lead for over 59 minutes in arguably their most complete effort of the season. Alex Gritz (Cranberry Township, PA) potted a goal and an assist, and Jack Phibbs (Hagersville, ON/) added a pair of helpers to pace the road Warriors to victory. Waterloo also got goals from Tate Popple (Brandon, MB), Nick Halagian (St. Catharines, ON), and Chase Campbell (Waterloo, ON), while Julian Sime (Mississauga/North Bay Battalion, OHL) made 29 stops in victory.
Popple gave the Warriors a lead just 41 seconds into the game, when he took the Gritz drop pass and ripped a wrister past Windsor goaltender Noah Giesbrecht for his first career U SPORTS goal. The Warriors carried that one-goal lead all the way to the early stages of the second period, when a Windsor turnover led to a 2-on-0 break for Waterloo. The Warriors worked it to perfection, as Jake Heerspink (Regina, SK) fed Halagian on the doorstep for a 2-0 Waterloo lead.
Midway through the frame, the Warriors added to their advantage when Phibbs found a streaking Campbell, who turned Giesbrecht inside out on a gorgeous individual effort to make it 3-0. The Lancers bounced back just 25 seconds later with a Mason Kohn marker, making it 3-1 after 40 minutes.
The Lancers struck late in the third with the goaltender pulled, as Brady Hinz tipped home the Holden Wale point shot. But the Warriors salted it away with an empty-netter for Gritz, who also earned his first career U SPORTS tally.
The high pace carried over to the second game of the back-to-back, as the Warriors and Lancers exchanged chances in a scoreless first period that featured only a handful of stoppages. The visitors opened the scoring early in the second though, as a defensive zone turnover eventually found its way to the stick of Sean Olson, one of the hottest goal-scorers in the OUA. Olson hammered home a one-timer over the glove of Waterloo goaltender Dan Murphy (Waterford, ON) for his sixth of the early season, giving Windsor a 1-0 lead.
The Lancers would double their advantage late in the period, when an expiring Lancers penalty led to a 3-on-1 rush. The puck carrier Kohn waited patiently for the cross-seam pass to open up before finding Anthony Stefano, who one-timed it past Murphy for a 2-0 Windsor lead after two periods.
The Warriors came with a push in the third, but it was fruitless until it was too late. Ryan Shaw flipped one into the empty net with just under three minutes to play to widen the Windsor lead, before Jacob Cascagnette (Kitchener, ON) scored with the goaltender out again to make it 3-1. It was the closest the Warriors would get though, as the road team skated away with a win for the second straight night.
The Warriors now sit at 2-4-0 and will now prepare for another home-and-home week, against the Guelph Gryphons. Waterloo will travel down highway 7 to the Gryphon Centre Arena on Thursday, November 25 at 7:30 pm, before hosting the Gryphs on Saturday, November 27 at 7pm.