Justin McDonald has been put to the test this season.
Saturday night was no different, though the second-year goalie stood tall against a McGill Redmen squad that arrived at Fort William Gardens with all guns blazing.
McDonald, filling in for the still-injured Jeff Bosch, stood tall in the Lakehead Thunderwolves net, stopping 17 of 18 shots directed his way in the opening period.
But the onslaught proved too much as the game progressed and the McGill offence went into overdrive, and buoyed by a trio of second-period goals, the Redmen coasted to a 5-1 win, their eighth in 11 outings.
Mike Hammond had the lone goal for Lakehead, opening the scoring at 6:14 of the first. With the loss the Wolves fell to 4-7-2.
Jonathan Brunelle, who netted the first-period equalizer on the power-play, Samuel Labrecque, Neal Prokop, Guillaume Monast and Simon Tardif-Richard were the McGill goal scorers.
Lakehead coach Bill McDonald didn’t have to think long when asked where to lay the blame. In fact, he had an immediate answer.
“I can tell you in a nutshell right now what it was,” the second-year bench boss said. “It was faceoffs. Our faceofs were atrocious throughout the game and you either start with the puck or you start without the puck.
“And we started without it a whole pile. They’re a skilled team and I just looked at the faceoffs after the second period and they were just killing us.”
McDonald said he met with players between the second and third periods, and asked them to at least try to tie the number of draws and come away with the puck 50 per cent of the time.
“It was a really good start and they just started to take over. There was a section there in the first period where I think we lost five draws in a row in our own end. And against a team like that, they get momentum, they can move it around and they (owned) the time of possession in the end zone,” McDonald said.
Justin McDonald said he’d rather have more shots than not enough, but even he admitted it was a bit frustrating watching McGill control the puck for most of the night.
“It’s tough, that’s for sure. They had a lot of great chances, but we had our chances too. We had a couple of power plays throughout the game, three or four, that we didn’t capitalize on, which is too bad," the Saskatchewan-born goalie said.
“But I was a little disappointed with myself too, there were few goals I thought I should have had. Five-to-one was definitely the result we didn’t want."
McDonald, who made a huge stop on Alexandre Lemieux about a minute after Hammond`s opening goal, couldn`t catch up to Jonathan Brunelle at the 8:45 mark. The Redmen forward one-timed a Mathieu Pompei shot for the equalizer and the two teams were tied 1-1 after 20 minutes.
Labrecque fired a howitzer from one step inside the blue-line that beat McDonald top shelf just 2:09 into the second, the goal proving to be the winner.
Lakehead`s Jay Gilbert had a chance to tie at the 6:00 mark, but rang the puck off the crossbar. McGill scored twice more in the final 4:06 to take a commanding 4-1 lead into the final frame.
FIRST PERIOD
Scoring: 1. Lakehead, Hammond (Magill) 6:14. 2. Magill Brunelle (Pompei, McNicoll) 8:45 pp. Penalties: Carrick LAK (high sticking) 7:16.
SECOND PERIOD
Scoring: 3. McGill, Labrecque (Lemieux) 2:09. 4. McGill, Prokop (Bonneau) 15:54. 5. McGill, Monast (Boutet) 16:20. Penalties: C. Dubchak LAK (boarding) 5:14, Barnard MCG (slashing) 13:01
THIRD PERIOD
Scoring: McGill, Tardif-Richard (Bonneau, Prokop) 16:54. Penalties: C. Dubchak LAK (spearing) 1:49, Delisle-Houde MCG (slashing) 6:00, Le Sieur MCG (cross checking) 8:49, Lemieux MCG (boarding) 18:02, Chenevert MCG (slashing) 18:41, D. Quesnele LAK (unsportsmanlike conduct) 19:55.
GAME DATA – SOG – McGill 18-14-0-0, Lakehead 5-13-0-0; Power plays (goals-chances) – McGill (1-3), Lakehead (0-4); Goaltenders – McGill: Karel St. Laurent, Lakehead: Justin McDonald; A: 3,021.
