RECAP - Gee-Gees rise to top of OUA East with weekend sweep

The University of Ottawa Gee-Gees men's hockey team rose to the top of the OUA East standings over the weekend following wins over the RMC Paladins and nationally ranked Queen's Gaels.

Six different scorers found the back of the net for the Gee-Gees in a 6-1 win over the Paladins on Friday night. Ottawa followed that up with a 4-2 win in the first meeting with the Gaels this season.

Head Coach Patrick Grandmaître said his team played a strong all-around team game over the weekend.

"From our goaltender, to our defencemen, to our forwards — It was a game where, as a coach, you want your team to come out a certain way and this was it," he said. "Our first period wasn't our best, but the second and third were really good." 

Jean-François Plante paced the offence, scoring four points over the weekend, and extending his point streak to three games.

"He's a goal scorer, he finds a way, and tonight he found a way with his skate," Grandmaître said. "He's driving the net with the puck, that's what goal scorers do."

Plante was held without a point in his first five games before heating up, and Grandmaître envisions a similar scenario with a fellow Gee-Gees sniper in Kevin Domingue. While the Laval native has a pedigree for pouring pucks into the net, he's been held to just two goals in his first eight games.

"When Kevin gets one, he'll get more after that," Grandmaître said. "Those guys are streaky but the shot first mentality gets them opportunities, and they will keep coming."

Plante wasn't the only scorer heating up over the weekend. Brendan Jacome opened the scoring against RMC to tally his team-leading fifth goal of the season, while defence Michael Poirier notched his third of the season in his seventh game.

Against Queen's, Matt Dunlop scored his first of the season while Marc Beckstead and Yvan Mongo found the back of the net in back to back nights.

Anthony Brodeur stopped 33 of 34 shots he faced against RMC, while Graham Hunt stood stall between the pipes against Queen's stopping 21 of 23.

Ottawa currently boasts the best goaltending duo in the conference. Hunt currently ranks first in both goals-against average (1.47) with Brodeur not far behind in second place (1.92). The duo are also tied for the best save percentage in the league at 0.944.

After killing off all 13 penalties through the two games, the Gee-Gees also hold the second best successful penalty kill rate at 89.5-percent.

Now with a record of 7-0-1 and a two point cushion atop the OUA East standings, Ottawa will head north to visit the Nipissing Lakers and Laurentian Voyageurs.

"Any athlete will say they try to take things game by game or shift by shift. Hopefully next weekend we come out the same way with the same effort," Grandmaître said.