OSHAWA, Ont. – UOIT men's hockey all-time win leader, Brendan O'Neill (Ilderton, Ont.), had his 40^th on Saturday night with a 32-save shutout over the Nipissing Lakers.
 
The 3-0 victory was his fourth OUA shutout since joining the Ridgebacks in 2014-15.
 
"Every game is a battle now with six or seven games left, so we just wanted to be patient with this game and wear them down as the game went on," said head coach Curtis Hodgins. "I thought our game got better in the second and third for sure, but that's two evenly matched teams and that was a hard-working game."
 
Ben Blasko (Kingston, Ont.), who has had points in all but five Ridgebacks' games this year, opened the scoring 2:54 into the second period. After a Lakers turnover in the slot, he deked and held on to beat an outstretched Domenic Graham and give UOIT a 1-0 lead.
 
The goal was his seventh of the season and gave him his team-leading 26^th point.
 
"Ben has been really good all year and has been one of our offensive catalysts," said Hodgins. "He's a very smart, headsy player. The thing I like most about him is that his complete game has come a long way. He's a crafty, smart hockey player and when he goes, our team goes."
 


Before the end of the second Tyler Mayea (Burlington, Ont.) beat a screened Graham with a blast along the ice from the point, giving the Ridgebacks 2-0 lead at the 15:45 mark.
 
In a fairly calm game, which only had 16 penalty minutes, Nipissing got into penalty trouble early in the third and on their second power play of the period the Ridgebacks capitalized as Brennan Roy (Iroquois Falls, Ont.) scored his fourth of the season from the top of the faceoff circle to ice the game with 11:25 to go.
 
Graham made 39 saves in the loss for the Lakers, who will now prepare for a rematch against the Ridgebacks in North Bay next Friday night.
 
For the Ridgebacks they wrap up their weekend at home on Sunday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. against the Laurentian Voyageurs at the Campus Ice Centre.
 
As of Saturday night, UOIT now sits two points back of Carleton for fourth in the OUA eastern conference and two points ahead of Ottawa.
 
QUICK LOOK AT THE RIDGEBACKS
Overall Record: 15-10-1
Conference Record: 13-7-1

Next game: Sunday, Jan. 21 vs. Laurentian Voyageurs (3:30 p.m. – Campus Ice Centre)