Toronto, ON - All the TMU Bold have done this season is find ways to win.
On Saturday night though, it was the Golden Hawks came out victorious winning a tightly contested 2-1 game putting an end to the Bold's five game winning streak.
"They came in here after playing last night, a quick turnaround and they were the hungrier team and deserved the two points. I'm not thrilled with our effort. Kudos to them. They pretty much outworked us in all facets of the game." Bold head coach Johnny Duco said.
For the Golden Hawks, they have found their game as of late. A team that started the season on a five game losing streak have now won three of their last four games and certainly look like a different team than from the start of the season.
The Bold's first chance to capitalize came on an early powerplay just 1:30 into the first period. However, Christian Propp shut the door.
On the second powerplay the Bold were awarded, Aaron Hyman passed the puck to Zachary Shankar who let it rip from the point which made its way past Propp in the back of the net to give the Bold a 1-0 lead.
Coming into Saturday's game, the Bold boasted the OUA's second best powerplay converting at 33.3%. The powerplay only got better with Shankar's marker.
"Our special teams have been terrific all year long. I thought our powerplay had some good movement. Hyman hits the crossbar. We had some good chances," Duco said.
There have been lots of one and done rushes but just under six minutes to go in the first period, the Golden Hawks got sustained pressure in the offensive zone which led to there being a net mouth scramble which is when Matt McJannett found the loose puck and shot it past Garrett Forrest to tie the game.
Early in the second period, the Golden Hawks were given an opportunity on a powerplay of their own but TMU killed it off. Entering Saturday's game, the Bold had the number one ranked penalty kill in the OUA at 92.5%.
"Our penalty kill was sharp again. In terms of our special teams, we're happy with that. We have to create more offence 5-on-5." Duco said.
The Golden Hawks didn't stop there as off a Bold offensive zone turnover, the Golden Hawks went the other way and Conor Ali got the lead feed from Caleb Rich and shot it past Forrest to give the Golden Hawks the lead.
The Bold had some really good chances to tie the game nearing the end of the second period but Propp once again shut the door.
The best chance of the third period came off of the stick of Kyle Bollers who shot it off of one-knee but Propp slid from left to right to make the tremendous save.
The Bold were sent to the penalty kill after Kevin Gursoy got penalized for cross-checking with six minutes left in the third period but the Bold killed it off. On that penalty kill, Forrest made a spectacular save on Rich who was all alone in front and a wide open cage to look at but Forrest was just in position and saved it with his blocker.
"I don't know if it was a set play from [Laurier] or a broken play. I just remembered I was down in my butterfly, and the puck squirted loose to the guy wide open in the slot and right on his stick and somehow I was able to get over and get a blocker on it." Garrett Forrest added postgame when talking about his big save on Caleb Rich alone in the slot on the Golden Hawks powerplay.
Duco commended the performance of Forrest on Saturday. "He [Forrest] did everything to give us a chance to win. One of our main goals is allowing two [goals] or less. He did that and gave us every chance to win." Duco said.
The next game for the Bold is up against the Lakehead Thunderwolves on Friday, November 18 at 6pm.
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