RECAP: Graham dominant in goal, men’s hockey beats Lakers

Facing his former team, goaltender Domenic Graham steered aside 21 of the 22 shots he faced to help the Gee-Gees men's hockey team to a 5-1 victory over the Nipissing Lakers at the Minto Sports Complex Saturday evening.

"It still wasn't a clean performance," said Gee-Gees head coach Patrick Grandmaître. "We didn't like our first period, [Graham] came up big. Our second period was really good, then we played decent with the lead."

Graham, who improved his record this year to 7-2 with the win, spent four seasons with the Lakers before transferring to the University of Ottawa this offseason to pursue a master's degree. 

"They're good guys, they battle hard and face a lot of adversity every night," said Graham of his former teammates. "We did that together for four years. It was nice to see the guys after the game."

The Gee-Gees got on the board first with Kevin Domingue sniping his third goal in four games late in the first period. Domingue took a pass from Cody Drover and rifled the puck past Nipissing netminder Talor Joseph. 

The Garnet and Grey then exploded for four goals in the second period. Brendan Jacome potted one from in close, and then Yvan Mongo scored on a shorthanded breakaway to give Ottawa a two-goal lead in a matter of moments. Mongo was sprung on the break by Connor Brown-Maloski, who earned his first career point on the play. 

Ottawa continued to pour it on, with Nicolas Mattinen blasting a point shot past Joseph on the power play. The marker snapped a three-game streak in which the Gee-Gees failed to score on the man advantage. Jacob Hanlon would add another goal to make the score 5-0 for the home team. 

The lone blemish on Graham's record was self-inflicted. In the dying seconds of the second frame, the goaltender mishandled the puck and Jacob Hickey shot it into the empty cage.

"You have to focus for 60 minutes," said Graham. "I made a turnover in the second period. You have to be sharp all the time. I didn't play 60 minutes and build habits for the big games."

The Gee-Gees would maintain their lead in the third period, improving to 7-4-0 on the season. 

Special teams shined Saturday for the Gee-Gees. They went 1-for-2 on the power play, and their penalty kill was strong, going 3-for-3. Ottawa's penalty kill is now at 90.4% for the season, the highest penalty kill percentage in the conference.

"It's a good bounce back," said Grandmaître, referencing his team's 4-2 loss to the Carleton Ravens on Friday night. "We've been a bit snake-bitten, only scoring two goals per game recently. It was good to see a balanced attack. Lots of positives to take from it and we move on to next weekend." 

The Gee-Gees travel north for a rematch with the Lakers (4-6-1) on Saturday, November 23 and then continue on to Sudbury, Ont., to play the Laurentian Voyageurs (3-8-2) on Sunday, November 24. Ottawa returns home for a midweek battle with the Queen's Gaels (5-8-0) on Wednesday, November 27. Puck drop is at 7:30 p.m. at the Minto Sports Complex.

Tickets for all Gee-Gees home games are available at tickets.geegees.ca. Games are streamed live on OUA.tv. For in-game updates, follow @GeeGeesMHKY.