Tough games for LU men's hockey team

If the Laurentian Voyageurs men's hockey team planned to rest on their laurels after opening the 2014-2015 season with a pair of wins at home, those visions were quickly knocked from their heads last week.

The LU lads saw their mark drop to .500 in a hurry, as the Voyageurs were manhandled 10-3 Thursday night by the Ryerson Rams, before being doubled 4-2 by the University of Toronto Varsity Blues on Friday.

Laurentian was in the game at Ryerson for a while, deadlocked at 1-1 at the end of the first period and trailing 5-3 less than six minutes into the final frame when Nicholas Dionne tallied for the visitors.

Unfortunately for coach Craig Duncanson and company, the wheels pretty much fell off over the course of the final 14 minutes as Ryerson struck for five goals in a span of 10:54, handing the Voyageurs their first loss of the year.

Brandon Francisco and Nick Esposto joined Dionne on the scoresheet for LU, with Mitch Gallant and Kyle Blaney showing the way for Ryerson, each player recording a hat trick.

Laurentian starting netminder Alain Valiquette was pulled after the fourth Rams' goal when the homeside slipped three pucks past the former Sudbury Wolves' netminder in a stretch of just 2:20 early in period two.

The contest was a hostile affair, with no less than four players ejected. Brandon Howes (Laurentian) and Kevin Woodyatt (Ryerson) were tossed after dropping their gloves and squaring off at 15:16 of the third period, with Ryerson's Jason Kelly assessed a major for slashing late in the second, and Michael MacDonald of the Voyageurs was tagged with a match penalty with 1:31 remaining in the game.

Things were notably more sensible the next night as the Voyageurs went toe to toe with the Varsity Blues. Dean Klomp opened the scoring, beating Charlie Millen with the only goal of the first period, with Jeff Brown doubling the advantage at 6:43 of the second.

Sebastien Leroux got one back for Laurentian, finding the back of the net almost exactly six minutes later, with Dylan Heide restoring the two goal lead with a power-play marker before the end of the middle stanza.

Darcy Haines made things interesting, pulling the trigger with L.U. up a man with just 47 seconds to play before Michael Markovic would ice the encounter, hitting the empty net with just one tick remaining on the clock.

The Voyageurs, who outshot the Varsity Blues 35-32, are on the road again next weekend, battling the RMC (Royal Military College) Paladins Friday night in Kingston before heading to Montreal for a match-up with the McGill Redmen Saturday night.