Volume 96, Issue 49
Tuesday, November 26, 2002
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Rams? More like lambs
By B.J. Noufaily
Gazette Staff
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Lennie
Kwan/Gazette |
| SO MUCH FOR THAT "HURRY UP" FACE-OFF. Western Mustangs centre Darren Mortier and his teammates did some stat padding on Friday, whooping Ryerson 10-1. |
Coming off a 4-0 shutout
of the University of Toronto on Thursday, Western's defending National
Champion men's hockey team showed no signs of slowing down on Friday night.
Their latest victims were the Ryerson Rams, who looked more like lambs
being led to slaughter.
By the final horn, 14 different Mustangs players had recorded a point,
the fans were treated to free pizza, stitches were sewn, the scoreboard
read 10-1 and the Mustangs were still undefeated.
Tim Zafiris led the Mustangs' attack with a hat trick. "Timmy's small,
but mighty," said linemate Jamie Chamberlain, who assisted on a pair
of Zafiris' goals.
The mood in the Ryerson locker room after the game was more sombre than
a cemetery. Players quietly changed, while equipment managers inaudibly
collected and packed sticks. Frustrated Ryerson coach Ed Kirsten sat on
a water cooler, collecting his thoughts and calming himself after the
frustrating loss.
"We just had a lot of lapses on our part. We made some really bad
reads," Kirsten said. "Each time you give a team like Western
a two-on-one chance, they'll score. [Western has] too much talent and
too much skill."
After gaining a quick 2-0 lead in the first period, the Mustangs erupted
in the second. Ryerson goalie Braden Deane had more shots thrown at him
than a guy celebrating his 19th birthday. As a result, after unsuccessfully
trying to break his stick after allowing the fourth straight Western goal
of the period, Deane threw his stick down the rink in disgust.
The Rams responded by breaking Western goalie Mike Boyce's shutout bid
with a wrap-around bank-shot off a Mustangs defender. But Ryerson's lone
tally was like trying to put out a bonfire with your own piss – it
did nothing. By the second intermission, the scoreboard read 7-1.
The only other bright side for the Rams was, paradoxically, the darkest
side of the game. A couple times during the game, skirmishes between the
two teams broke out. A frustrated Kirsten pondered the physical play after
the game.
"One of [my players] gets hit across the face, gets a five inch cut
across his jaw and somehow we get a two minute penalty," Kirsten
commented, before adding he did see an up-side to the rough stuff. "The
emotion [Rams' players] showed is a positive."
But the Mustangs were game for the bedlam as well. "We don't mind
chirping when other teams get chippy," Zafiris said. "Sometimes,
we gotta remind them who the National Champions are."
"Our guys were into the game for 60 minutes," praised Mustangs
coach Clarke Singer. "Our skill level was superior [and our] goaltending
was better."