GUELPH, Ont. – The wins keep on rolling in for the UOIT men's hockey team as they earned a hard-fought 4-3 road victory over the Guelph Gryphons on Saturday afternoon.
 
The win extends the Ridgebacks' point streak to eight games, as they improve to 9-3-1 to sit in third place in the OUA eastern conference. Guelph, the 2015 OUA champions, had their four-game win streak snapped with their first loss in the month on November.
 
Trailing 2-1 heading into the third period, UOIT's offence would catch fire as they scored three goals over a ten-minute stretch to take a 4-2 lead. With their goaltender pulled, the Gryphons would add a late goal to get within one but the Ridgebacks managed to hold on for the win. UOIT goaltender Brendan O'Neill (Ilderton, Ont.) came up big in the final seconds of play stopping a golden opportunity for the Gryphons.
 
UOIT captain Luke VanMoerkerke (Tillsoburg, Ont.) scored his 30^th career OUA goal in the victory, moving him into a tie for fifth place in Ridgeback all-time goal scoring with former teammate Nathan Spaling.
 
Ben Blasko (Kingston, Ont.) scored the game-winning goal for UOIT with eight minutes to go in the third. Blasko's power play marker was his 12^th point of the year, as he leads the team in scoring. Jason Shaw (Belleville, Ont.) earned assists on Blasko's and VanMoerkerke's tallies.
 
Alex Derlis (Campbellcroft, Ont.) and James Woodcroft (Midland, Ont.) were the other goal scorers for UOIT.
 
O'Neill picked up the win in net as he made 24 saves. Former Peterborough Pete Andrew D'Agostini had 20 saves in the losing effort.
 
With both teams entering the game with win streaks on the line, the game had a playoff-type atmosphere that ended up resulting in the teams combining for 40 minutes in penalties. UOIT's power play unit went 1-for-4 while the home side went 1-for-5.
 
The Ridgebacks three-game road trip will end next weekend as they take on the No. 1 ranked McGill Redmen in Montreal. McGill just had their own nine-game win streak broken on Saturday with a 3-2 loss to York.
 
UOIT returns home on Thursday, Dec. 3 as they take on the Ryerson Rams.
 
QUICK LOOK AT THE RIDGEBACKS
Overall Record: 11-7-1
Conference Record: 9-3-1
 
Next Game: Friday, Nov. 27 at McGill Redmen (7 p.m.)