{"id":49923,"date":"2018-03-15T17:00:50","date_gmt":"2018-03-15T21:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=49923"},"modified":"2018-03-15T17:25:23","modified_gmt":"2018-03-15T21:25:23","slug":"badgers-mens-hockey-team-eliminated-from-usports-university-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2018\/03\/badgers-mens-hockey-team-eliminated-from-usports-university-cup\/","title":{"rendered":"Badgers men\u2019s hockey team eliminated from USPORTS University Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Cinderella playoff run for the Brock Badgers has come to an end in Fredericton.<\/p>\n

The Badgers were eliminated from the USPORTS Cavendish Farms University Cup National Championship Thursday with a 6-2 loss to the St. Francis Xavier X-Men. The fourth-seeded Badgers fought hard in a game that was far closer than the final score appears, but the fifth-seeded X-Men of Antigonish, Nova Scotia came out on top.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Brock Badgers forward Ayden Macdonald tries to bring the puck past St. Francis Xavier defenceman Santino Centoraime.<\/p><\/div>\n

It brings to end a turning point season for the Brock men\u2019s hockey team, which graduating player Matt McLeod, of Niagara Falls, says sets the bar for the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very proud of our season and proud of the fact we got here,\u201d said McLeod. \u201cFor myself and the 10 other graduating players, it was something special to be able to have the season we did. Now, there\u2019s a higher standard for Brock hockey. That\u2019s something to be proud of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brock was coached this year by Marty Williamson, a former Niagara IceDogs coach hired by the University in August. After a 14-9-5 regular season and a playoff run that included upset wins over Laurier, Guelph and York, as well as appearances in the OUA Queen\u2019s Cup and now the USPORTS National Championship, Williamson said the team deserves to be proud.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis team shouldn\u2019t be judged on 60 minutes, it\u2019s the body of work they did this season and how they came together,\u201d he said. \u201cThey have done great things for me in terms of recruiting and they\u2019ve set a standard for our hockey teams going forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want this to be a common occurrence that we give ourselves an opportunity and that\u2019s what we did today.\u201d<\/p>\n

After falling behind 2-0 in the first seven minutes of the game Thursday at the spacious University of New Brunswick Aitken Centre, Brock answered back with goals from Braden Pears and Ayden Ma\"\"<\/a>cdonald, who scored on a highlight-reel wraparound.<\/p>\n

A breakaway goal by StFX\u2019s Michael Clarke made it 3-2 late in the second period, but the game remained tight until the third period when the X-Men added powerplay, even-strength and empty-net goals to make it a 6-2 final. Also scoring for StFX were Holden Cook and Kristoff Kontos with two each and Craig Dunnick with one. Brock goalie Clint Windsor made 32 saves in the loss while X-Men keeper Chase Marchand, who won the USPORTS National Goalie of the Year title Wednesday night, made 23 saves.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are no regrets. We gave it our all,\u201d said Windsor, who won the OUA Goalie of the Year title. \u201cAgainst all odds, we made it here. Obviously it would have been nice to end the season on a win, but unfortunately we fell short. But there\u2019s lots to be proud of this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

As one of the 11 graduating Badgers, Windsor said he was happy to go out with a strong season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year was huge. The guys helped me out so much and made my job easy. I\u2019m ending on a good note personally and as a team, so that\u2019s the best way you can imagine it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Because the USPORTS men\u2019s hockey national championship is a single-game knockout, the Badgers will now have to watch from the sidelines as the tournament continues. Quarter-final games continue until Friday night, with the semifinals set for Saturday and the medal round Sunday.<\/p>\n

NOTES: <\/strong>While Brock didn\u2019t have as large of a cheering section as it did at home for the Queen\u2019s Cup Saturday, hundreds of students from Fredericton elementary schools were in attendance at Thursday\u2019s game. They were divided into StFX and Brock cheering sections and came armed with homemade signs and cheered to the end.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Brock Badgers players console each other after being eliminated from the USPORTS University Cup National Championship tournament in Fredericton Thursday, March 15.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Cinderella playoff run for the Brock Badgers has come to an end in Fredericton.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":49933,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3319,1,58],"tags":[256,4437,5658,698],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49923"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49923"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49923\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49936,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49923\/revisions\/49936"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}