OUA Playoffs - Lakers swept by Patriotes

TROIS RIVIERES, QC - The UQTR Patriotes scored 3 times on the power play and fired 8 goals past Lakers starter Dan Spence as the Pats swept the Nipissing Lakers with a convincing 8-3 win at Le Colisee Saturday afternoon.

The win allows gives the Patriotes a 2-game sweep of the best-of-three OUA East Division semi-final series.

Pierre-Luc Lessard led the potent Patriotes attack with 2 goals and 1 assist.

The Lakers opened the scoring on a goal by Sean Ryan only 1:09 into the first period but the Patriotes stormed back to take a 2-1 lead with two goals less than 30 seconds apart to make it 2-1 Pats at 1:59 of the opening frame.

Lessard scored a power play marker midway through the first to give the Patriotes a 3-1 lead. Kevin Rebelo closed the gap with a shorthanded goal at 13:36 of the middle frame.

Late in the first period, Lucas McKinley almost knotted the game at 3-3 but Pats goaltender Guillaume Nadeau maded his best save of the night making a great skate save to keep it 3-2 Pats after 1.

Tommy Tremblay gave the Pats a 4-2 lead with a power play marker at 4:37 of the second period.

Felix Petit and Maxime Gravel extended the Pats lead to 6-2. However, Matt Paton kept the Lakers alive with a late 2nd period goal to make it 6-3 after 40 minutes.

The Patriotes didn't give the Lakers any breathing room to start the 3rd as Lessard notched a power play goal 21 seconds into the period to make it 7-3 and 37 seconds later Antoine Quevillon made it 8-3 Patriotes.

While the Lakers did score a shorthanded goal, they finished 0 for 7 on the power play while the Pats scored 3 times with the extra attacker in 10 opportunities.

The Lakers had to deal with very loud Patriotes fans who were blowing an air horn right and other noise makers right behind their bench.

Lakers head coach Mike McParland felt the fans were abusive and he asked the officials to have security remove them, but his request was denied.

Fighting a top notch OUA team was tough enough without having the fans as a distraction.

"I told them we needed to turn the frustrated energy into positive energy due to loud fans and we can’t let the situation take you off the track and unfortunately guys did come off the track," admitted McParland about the added distraction.

However, the Lakers bench boss credits UQTR for their series victory.

"I give them full value for their win and for their national ranking this season," he said.