The Ryerson Rams men’s hockey team put on a show with a huge win in its home opener at the Mattamy Athletic Centre on Thursday.
The Rams came away with a 10-3 victory over the Laurentian Voyageurs as forwards Mitch Gallant and Kyle Blaney led the offensive onslaught with two individual hat tricks.
While head coach Graham Wise gave full credit to his team’s efforts, he also said the crowd played a big factor.
“Well I thought there was lots of energy in the building,” said Wise. “A lot of credit (goes to) the people behind the scenes that work really hard to get the students in here — it was electric out there for our players.”
The Mattamy Athletic Centre had 1,379 spectators for the Rams’ showdown with the Voyageurs.
Fans were witness to a rare double hat trick spectacle with Gallant and Blaney each flexing their goal-scoring muscles in Ryerson’s rout of Laurentian.
“It’s a pretty good feeling, it’s been a while since I scored a hat trick,” said Gallant. “It’s tough to put it on one guy when we score ten goals. Kyle Blaney with another hat trick, he played amazing as well. (Troy Passingham) in net, everybody collectively.”
There was also some rough stuff as Kevin Woodyatt and Laurentian’s Brandon Howes were each slapped with five-minute fighting majors and game misconducts for their fight in the third period. Woodyatt will not be available to the Rams for their next game against at home the Nipissing Lakers tomorrow night at 7:30 p.m.
Can a coach complain about a 10-3 win?
“Any coach is going to say we need a little more work on our back-end — whatever,” said Wise. “Let’s enjoy the moment right now.”
Patrick completed his Masters of Journalism at Ryerson University in 2015.