OSHAWA, Ont. – The UOIT men's hockey team capped off their weekend at the Campus Ice Centre with a 4-3 victory over the Laurier Golden Hawks on Saturday night.
 
They started the weekend with a 3-2 victory on Friday over the Waterloo Warriors, which included a 29-save performance by Brendan O'Neill (Ilderton, Ont.) in the win. He followed that with a 24-save victory on Saturday against the Golden Hawks.
 
It was UOIT captain Luke VanMoerkerke (Tillsonburg, Ont.) that opened the scoring for the Ridgebacks against Laurier on Saturday as he beat Vinny Merante 8:31 into the first period.
 
In the second the Golden Hawks stormed back with a pair of goals in the first four minutes of the frame by Mackenzie Braid and Ryan Lopes to take a 2-1 lead. Ridgebacks' head coach Curtis Hodgins called a timeout, which seemed to settle the team down as Connor Jarvis (Port Union, Ont.) tied the game with his first of two goals on the night at the 10:51 mark.
 
Through two periods the teams were tied 2-2.
 
Jarvis beat Merante again 7:23 into the third to give his team the lead, with Ryan Doucette (Waterloo, Ont.) scoring the eventual game-winning goal with 4:35 to go in the game.
 
Christian Mroczkowski did capitalize for Laurier, who had pulled Merante in the final minutes, to beat O'Neill with 1:50 to go, but that was as close as they would get as UOIT shut the door to earn their seventh win of the season.
 
Merante made 24 saves in the loss for the Golden Hawks.
 
On Friday night Alex Derlis (Campbellcroft, Ont.) scored the opening goal for UOIT against Waterloo, but the Warriors had tallies by Joey Champigny and Phillip Fife before the end of the first period to lead the Ridgebacks 2-1.
 
Jason Shaw (Belleville, Ont.) tied the game in the second period for UOIT, where the game stayed until the third when Ben Blasko (Kingston, Ont.) scored the eventual game-winning goal 3:34 into the frame.
 
Chris Hurry faced 23 shots in the loss for Waterloo.
 
UOIT will now hit the road for the next two weeks before returning home Dec. 3 to host the Toronto Varsity Blues. Their final game before the holiday break is Dec. 4 at the Campus Ice Centre against the Ryerson Rams. Puck drop for both games is 7:30 p.m.
 
 
QUICK LOOK AT THE RIDGEBACKS
Overall Record: 9-7-1
Conference Record: 7-3-1
 
Next Game: Friday, Nov. 20 at Western Mustangs (7 p.m.)