OSHAWA, Ont. – The UOIT men's hockey team closed out conference action in 2016 with a 7-2 victory over the RMC Paladins Saturday night at the Campus Ice Centre.
 
With the lopsided win, UOIT heads into the holiday break with a 12-5-1 record, good enough for third place in the OUA eastern conference standings with 25 points. Going into the new year, a number of teams are still in the hunt for the conference title with only seven points separating first from sixth. Queen's (13-4-1) leads the way with 27 points while McGill (12-3-2) is in second place with 26.
 
UOIT led wire-to-wire on Saturday with Ryan Doucette (Waterloo, Ont.) scoring two first period goals marking his sixth and seventh of the season.
 
The Ridgebacks continued to add to their lead as Nate Mitton (Kitchener, Ont.) and Connor Jarvis (Port Union, Ont.) scored second period markers to give UOIT a 4-0 lead after 40 minutes. For Mitton, it was his second goal in as many nights.
 
RMC fifth-year veteran Alex Pym cut the Ridgeback lead to 4-1 six minutes into the third, but a Tyler Mayea (Burlington, Ont.) blast from the point 34 seconds later restored UOIT's four-goal lead. For Mayea, it was his first career OUA goal in 29 games.
 
Jack Patterson (Bedford, N.S.) and Jarvis would close out the game with goals for UOIT while Seamus Maguire scored for RMC. Patterson has scored in back-to-back games while Jarvis leads UOIT in goals with 10 in 18 games.
 
Malik Johnson (Montreal, Que.) had a four-point night, assisting on the Ridgebacks final four goals. Johnson is fifth in team scoring with 13 points, 11 of which are assists. Also having multi-point games were Doucette and Jarvis with two goals apiece, Mitton with a goal and an assist and Alex Yuill (Wellington, Ont.) who ended up with two assists.
 
Tyson Teichmann had a bounce back game after being pulled in the first period against Concordia on Friday night. The Belleville native made 37 saves matching his season high en route to his sixth victory.
 
RMC was 0-for-3 with the man advantage while UOIT was 1-for-2. The Ridgebacks penalty killing unit ranks fourth in the league running at 88.8 per cent.
 
QUICK LOOK AT THE RIDGEBACKS
Overall Record: 14-7-3
Conference Record: 12-5-1
 
Next game: Dec. 30 vs. Guelph (2 p.m. – Campus Ice Centre) *Exhibition Game