Attended the first exhibition game of the year for Laurier and Waterloo (at University of Waterloo). It was the Battle of Waterloo, or the battle between last year's OUA West 9th and 10th place teams (the only 2 teams not to make the playoffs). Both teams are looking to do better this year.
The game was tied at 4 after regulation, which saw 5 minutes of 4 on 4 which solved nothing, then the 5 minutes of 3 on 3 which was noted on these boards as a first time rule in the OUA. It was extremely interesting to watch. You did not have enough skaters to run a cycle, or offensive zone pressure, so all attacking was done in waves. It was also interesting to see both teams start with 2 forwards and 1 defenceman. I believe part way through, they both changed strategies to 1 forward and 2 defencemen.
Laurier scored with 0.5 seconds left in the second OT to win, as Michael Webley in his first game as a Goldenhawk completed his hattrick. Derek Schoenmakers scored the other 2 goals for Laurier.
Goals for Waterloo I believe were:
Matt Amadio x 2
Joel Hoekstra
Joe Underwood
Both teams were short some regulars due to injury/scratched for preseason. Newcomers for Laurier who impressed included Webley and Erik Pushka up front, and Matt Franczyk on D.
Total shots I believe were around 37-32 for Laurier, despite Waterloo being much stronger possession wise in the first period, with the rest of the game fairly even.
