A goal by Eric Ming in the fourth minute of the second overtime period gave the Queen’s Golden Gaels a 5-4 Ontario University Athletics hockey victory over the Waterloo Warriors Saturday night in Waterloo.
Ming assisted on a goal by Ryan Bloom with just 20 seconds left in the third period that tied the game for Queen’s and sent it into overtime. It was Bloom’s second goal of the game; his first came in the second period, just 47 seconds after Waterloo had taken its first lead of the game.
The Gaels weathered a storm in overtime, as they took back-to-back penalties in the first extra period, the first for too many men on the ice. In all, Queen’s was shorthanded for three minutes and 58 seconds of the seven extra minutes, during which the Gaels were outshot 9-2.
Kevin Bailie turned aside 47 of the 51 shots as he got the best of Warriors goaltender Mike Morrison, the former Kingston Frontenac. The Gaels took 37 shots on Morrison.
The victory, the Gaels’ second in a row and their fifth in the last six games, lifted Queen’s to within a point of idle Ontario Tech in the East division standings. Tech was beaten 8-4 in Waterloo on Friday night.
The Gaels have two games in hand on the Ridgebacks in the quest for fourth place and home-ice advantage in the first round of playoffs. Time is running out for Queen’s to catch Carleton for third place, however. After the Ravens were defeated 4-1 by Nipissing Friday night, they rebounded to blank Laurentian 4-0 Saturday, to stay five points up on the Gaels.
Queen’s has four games remaining in its schedule, two more than Carleton has left in its season.
Each team had a one-goal lead on two different occasions in Saturday night’s game but each time the other came back to tie the score.
Patrick McGillis and Slater Doggett scored the other Queen’s goals, while Chris Chappell, Stephen Silas, former Belleville Bull Brett Mackie and Cam Nichol shared the Waterloo scoring.
For Ming, the goal was his team-leading 16th of the year. He had three assists, giving him seven points in his last two games and 29 for the season.
Sunday night, the Gaels will visit the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks.