This article first appeared on RyersonRams.ca on Feb. 23, 2014.
Link: http://www.ryersonrams.ca/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=22300&ATCLID=209415860
TORONTO — The Ryerson Rams are advancing to the second round of the playoffs for the first time since the 2009-10 season.
The Rams defeated the Brock Badgers 6-3 on Sunday night at the Mattamy Athletic Centre at the Gardens and will now advance to the OUA West semifinals against the Lakehead Thunderwolves.
“With the season that we’ve had, you wipe the slate clean and come into the playoffs against a gritty team like Brock, we had to battle hard and obviously they took us the full length so it means a lot to get through this round for sure,” Graham Wise, Ryerson’s head coach, said after the game.
For a third consecutive game, Ryerson started the scoring in the contest, this time it was Victor Terreri (Mississauga, Ont.) with his first of the postseason, going top shelf on Brock starter Real Cormier.
Ten minutes later sophomore Robert Visca (Everett, Ont.) streaked in on the left side, wound up for a slap shot and scored to make it 2-0.
Just over a minute after that, Jamie Wise (Stouffville, Ont.) went glove side on Cormier and it was 3-0 for Ryerson. Cormier was replaced by Adrian Volpe after the goal.
Before the end of the period, Brock’s Andrew Radjenovic would notch one and the two teams would enter the first intermission at the same score as game two, 3-1.
Much like the first period, the middle frame was full of goals. Lucas Froese notched his first of the postseason over half way through the period on a nice deke to put his team up by three.
Brock would answer back to make it a two goal game again but Jamie Wise would notch his second of the game on the powerplay to make it 5-2. Johnson Andrews would score with under five minutes left in the second and the two teams skated into the dressing rooms with Ryerson leading 5-3.
In the third period, Ryerson would play solid defensive hockey and their fourth line of Terreri, Visca, and Steve Taylor would shut things down. Taylor (Sudbury, Ont.) would score his second of the postseason before the game was done to seal the victory.
“I thought we did a good job, especially Taylor, Terreri, and Visca getting pucks deep and keeping it down it their zone and killing time off the clock in the third period,” Wise said.
The Rams will start their second round series against Lakehead later this week with a time and date still to be determined.
“If we can jump on them here then we can give them a real battle,” Wise said.