RECAP: Hodgins stellar in goal, earns first career win with victory over Paladins

The University of Ottawa Gee-Gees Men's Hockey team returned to their winning ways on Friday night, earning a 6-1 victory over the RMC Paladins in Kingston. With a record of 18-1-4, the Gee-Gees have yet to lose back-to-back games this season.

 "Good game, start to finish. We had a good start and built on that," said head coach Patrick Grandmaître following the game. "Special teams were key, being perfect on the power play and perfect on the penalty kill, that doesn't happen very often."

 In goal, Ottawa turned to second-year goaltender Nick Hodgins. The start was his first of the season, with him earning his first career win. Hodgins stopped 19 of 20 shots in the contest and held the Paladins off the scoresheet until late in the game.

 "I'm really happy for him, it's very well deserved," Grandmaître said. "He's the best teammate you could ask for. He's a hard worker, puts time in at the gym, he's at every practice, he's never asked us for anything." 

"You can tell by the way the guys played, they wanted to win this one for him."

Jacob Hanlon opened the scoring early in the game, stealing an errant pass up the middle from the Paladins, and promptly burying it through the five hole. 

Just two minutes later, Yvan Mongo finished off a quick passing play to tally his eight of the season.

Kevin Domingue scored the first power play goal of the night, taking a feed from Cody Drover with a handful of seconds remaining in the period, and unloading a shot into the back of the net.

Ottawa pushed the game out of reach in the second period, with Kyle Ward scoring in his first game back from injury to make it a four goal lead. Drover's power play goal raised the Gee-Gees to a perfect two-for-two on the night, while the Ottawa penalty killers successfully killed all three chances in the game.

Domingue rounded out the Ottawa scoring with his second of the night, capping off a three-point effort by the third-year forward. He established a new career-high for points, surpassing the 31 points in his rookie year. He currently has 33 on the season, and is within two goals of his 19 goal career-high he reached last season.

Up next, the Gee-Gees will host rival McGill in a Sunday matinee at the Minto Sports Complex. Tickets are available in advance at tickets.geegees.ca.

— Cameron Penney