Badgers Down Golden Hawks in Playoff Opener Thursday

The Brock Badgers made it to the 2022 Baggataway Cup final at Trent University as the third seed from the West. 

The Badgers will be hoping history repeats itself up until the championship game after securing a return trip to this year's Baggataway, again at Trent, with an 8-3 win over the Laurier Golden Hawks in CUFLA playoff action in St. Catharines Thursday night. 

Brock 8, Laurier 3
Box score
In a game that saw 11 goals scored in its full 60 minutes, a 4-goal burst in 6:07 of the second quarter was clearly the key to victory for Brock. 

Brock graduating senior Mitch Zulian had scored the only goal of the first quarter, fitting in with a theme of low-scoring games in the West Division this season. 

The Badgers added to their lead when James Gowland opened second quarter scoring, but an Aiden Macdonald response three minutes later drew the Hawks back within one.

Then the floodgates opened, relatively speaking. Gowland scored again to spark a run where the Badgers connected about every two minutes, first from Avery Steinbach-Parker then a pair back -to-back from Jaden Patterson.

That gave Brock a 6-1 lead at the half; the game returned to its low-scoring pattern the rest of the way with just 4 more goals being scored in the second half. 

Playoffs continue this weekend, with eight teams battling for the remaining four berths in the November 3-5 Baggataway Cup.