Bishop's and Carleton went down to the wire, with the Ravens almost punctuating their return to competitiveness with a trip to the Baggataway Cup. In the end, the Gaiters rode a 4-goal fourth-quarter run highlighted by 3 Antoine Tremblay tallies to an 8-7 win on CUFLA's playoff weekend.
Bishop's will be joined at the Baggataway Cup by other weekend winners McGill, Western, Brock and Guelph along with host Trent, this Friday – Saturday, November 4-6 at Justin Chiu Stadium in Peterborough.
Bishop's 8, Carleton 7
Box score
After the Gaiters exited a low-scoring first half leading just 2-1, Carleton took control of the third quarter with a 3-1 edge, led by a pair of Sam Trumble goals. Then, 1:20 into the fourth, Trumble connected again, the Ravens led 5-3 and the visitors had the look of a team ready to complete the upset and reach the Baggataway Cup after not having won a game in the previous three regular seasons.
Bishop's still had a few tricks up their sleeves, though. The comeback started with a notable shift in ground ball controls; suddenly it seemed like the Gaiters were winning every battle for possession, either directly or via procedure calls against Carleton in scrums.
Tremblay, who had 10 goals in his last three games but hadn't yet scored on Saturday, got hot at just the right time for Bishop's. With his teammates drawing defensive pressure then feeding the former Robert Morris Colonial near the crease, Tremblay made no mistake as he buried three in-close chances in a span of seven minutes.
Mix in an Alex Lizotte marker and the tides were turned dramatically, with Bishop's pulling ahead 7-5 with less than four minutes to play. Cole Byrne pulled the Ravens back within one with 1:37 to go and Carleton gained possession about 20 seconds later.
With less than 80 seconds to play, the Ravens appeared to opt for waiting for a last shot and a chance at overtime. They didn't make a play at the net until about nine seconds showed on the game clock. With Bishop's focusing on taking away Trumble, Carleton never came close to getting a shooting opportunity; a pass from behind the net missed its target and the ball rolled harmlessly near centre field as the final few seconds ticked away.
Now the Gaiters advance to the Brock Badgers in the second Baggataway Cup quarterfinal, this Friday November 4 at 7:30 pm at Trent.
McGill 14, Queen's 6
Box score
Queen's had beaten McGill 13-7 a week ago to earn home field advantage in this playoff game, and the Gaels went ahead 1-0 then got up 5-2 thanks to four straight second-quarter goals as they tried to make it back to back wins over the Redbirds.
From four minutes remaining in the first half, though, the rematch was all McGill. They got 3 goals in the final 3:50 of the second quarter to tie the game up 5-5. Cameron McGinnis had a natural hat trick to produce and then extend McGill's first lead, then the visitors replied to a Bryan Poetker marker for Queen's with another trio of goals. In the fourth, McGill pulled away with a 3-0 quarter to leave no doubt they would make it back to the Baggataway Cup after having to miss all of last season because of a decision by their school.
Six players scored a goal each for both McGill and Queen's, so the difference was McGinnis, the big lefty who exploded for 8 goals in the game.
The Redbirds advance to Friday's first quarterfinal against Western.
Western 15, McMaster 3
Box score
It took the Mustangs five minutes to open the scoring, but from there Western dominated the first half to put the game away with a 9-0 lead by intermission. Surprisingly for a such a high-scoring game, Pierson Noble was the only Mustang with more than 1 goal. His hat trick joined 12 other players scoring single goals for Western, who advance to play McGill in the first quarterfinal at 4:30 pm Friday.
Brock 8, Toronto 5
Box score
The teams alternated goals through the first 19 minutes of the game, with Brock scoring and Toronto responding every time to make the score 3-3. Then Sam Leclair scored the first 2 goals of his eventual hat trick to give the Badgers an edge heading into half time. A 2-0 third quarter put Brock firmly in control, although the Varsity Blues tried to battle back, getting the first 2 goals of the fourth quarter from Caden Elliott and Alex Acosta. With 2:15 to play, however, Leclair stuck in the dagger with the goal that made it 8-5 and sent Brock on to defend their championship starting with their Baggataway Cup quarterfinal meeting with Bishop's.
Guelph 8, Laurier 4
Box score
This game looked like a mismatch on paper. Guelph finished the season as the West's top seed with a 9-1 record and a +43 scoring differential while the Golden Hawks were 2-8 and -29. Laurier didn't make it easy for the defending Baggataway Cup finalists to get back to the final weekend. Guelph rolled out of the gates, taking a 4-0 lead through the first 10 minutes.
Laurier scored the only other goal of the first quarter, the only goal of the second and the first goal of the third, making it a tight 4-3 game with 25 minutes left to play. In the end, the Gryphons were just too much for Laurier, outscoring the visitors 4-1 the rest of the way.
Guelph was led by hat tricks from Nicholas Volkov and Bryce Dennis. They advance directly to the second semifinal on Saturday, where they will face the winner of the Brock/Bishop's quarterfinal for a berth in the championship game.
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