Men’s hockey loses to both Acadia & SMU
The Tommies’ playoff hopes have almost disappeared after suffering two more loses over the weekend. They entered the weekend four points out of the playoffs with just four games remaining. Now, they will have to win their final two games of the season and hope that Dalhousie and Moncton lose their games as well.
Lack of discipline and poor officiating cost the Tommies the game on Friday night, against Acadia.
Still, after the game, head coach Mike Eagles put the blame for the loss on his team’s performance – not the officiating.
“It’s lack of mental toughness to deal with adversity, and discipline. You got to handle whatever happens out there. We all get frustrated by calls [made by the officials].”
The Tommies were trailing 3-1 to start the third period, but an early power play goal by Corey Banfield put the Tommies within one. For Banfield, that was his second goal of the game and his third goal (in just two games) since coming back from an injury.
With 16 minutes remaining in the game, there was plenty of time for the Tommies to tie it up, and Banfield seemed to give the Tommies some momentum. But, just seconds after the goal, Mike Reich took a slashing penalty, putting Acadia on the power play.
The game got controversial during the Acadia power play. Tommies forward Tyler Dietrich was taken down behind the play. It looked as though he was hit in the throat. The Tommies bench went up in arms, calling for a penalty, but no penalty was called.
Just seconds after, captain Erick Tremblay was called for a penalty, putting Acadia on a five-on-three power play. Moments later, the score was 4-2 for Acadia.
With less than eight minutes remaining, Tyler Dietrich took a five-minute major penalty for crosschecking, and was kicked out of the game. Acadia would capitalize on the power play, taking a 5-2 lead.
The Tommies nearly mounted a comeback late in the period. Goals by Devan Praught and Alex Labonte cut the lead down to 5-4. But Acadia would score an empty netter, for a final score of 6-4.
On Saturday, the Tommies were pitted up against Saint Mary’s, in a game featuring Mike Danton, who played his first ever game against the Tommies.
Danton made national headlines earlier this year, when he decided to join the Saint Mary’s hockey team after being released from prison. Danton served 62 months in prison for trying to hire a hit man to kill his agent David Frost. Danton later claimed that his father was the actual target of the hit.
Before his prison sentence, Danton played in 87 NHL games –scoring nine goals and racking up 182 penalty minutes.
Danton didn’t have much of an impact Saturday night against the Tommies. He got no points, and no penalty minutes.
The Saint Mary’s Huskies didn’t need Danton to come through offensively, as they rolled over the Tommies 5-2.
