Lancers down Hawks 6-3

by Jolene Perron

A battle heated up at South Windsor Arena when two desperate hockey teams played for a much needed win.

The Windsor Lancers hosted the Laurier Golden Hawks on home ice Friday night.
The Lancers came out strong in the first two periods of the game, scoring four goals to Laurier’s one.

During the third period, Laurier attempted a come back by scoring two more goals, but the Lancers weathered the storm matching each of the Hawk’s goals to win the game with a score of 6-3.

Kevin Hamlin, head coach of the University of Windsor men’s hockey team, said winning the game on home ice was ‘big.’

“I think you saw two desperate teams play tonight,” said Hamlin. “It seems like it’s been along time since we’ve won our last game …We haven’t played here at this arena for two months with the break and everything else, so it was a big win for us and hopefully it gets us back rolling in the right direction.”

Hamlin said the team has been struggling to play around injuries and they’re just trying to get healthy for the playoffs. Every game is important with the team just squeezing into the standings for a possible playoff position.

“The parody at this level is such that we’re four points out of first place, and we’re four points from not making the playoffs,” said Hamlin. “So it’s real tight and every game is really important.”

Lancers captain, Drew Palmer, said the game was a rough one and definitely a fight to the last goal. Both teams were hungry for this victory.

“Laurier is a very, very physical team, we know that we have to be physical with them in order to beat them so that was the game plan right from the get go so we executed very well,” said Palmer. “I think if we get a few wins in right now we have a good shot for the national championship this year.”

The Lancers went on to win their following game Jan. 18 against rival team Waterloo with a score of 4-2. Hamlin said Waterloo was the team which knocked them out of the playoffs last year, so the win was a personal victory for the team.