TORONTO - In their first game of the 2021-22 season - and their first appearance at the Mattamy Athletic Centre since the COVID-19 pandemic abruptly halted the program's progress in March 2020 - the Rams men's hockey team fell 5-3 in a hard-fought battle against the division rival Brock Badgers. Marked by a highly contentious late goal, the game tested the Rams' resilience early in the young season.

Even with their initial burst of energy, the Rams were largely outplayed in the first half of the first frame, managing just five shots to Brock's 11 and forcing goalie Garrett Forrest to make a sequence of rapid saves. But, with just over seven minutes remaining in the period, Rams forward Elijah Roberts took advantage of a bouncing puck that skipped over the stick of Badgers blueliner Christian DeDonato and escaped down the ice on a breakaway. After taking a few confident strides and plotting his attack, Roberts tucked it through the five hole of Brock netminder Mario Culina for his first goal with the program. 

Ten seconds later, Jesse Barwell doubled the Rams' lead with a swift wrist shot that beat Culina and sent an already excited Rams bench into a jubilant frenzy. 

"They came out fast and hard and they played excellent," Rams head coach Johnny Duco remarked, giving credit to the opposing squad. "I thought they really pushed the pace and put us on our heels more than we'd like."

In the middle frame, Brock evened things up thanks to goals from Christian Girhiny and Ayden MacDonald, but quickly fell behind once again after Domenico Commisso scored his first career OUA goal on one of the Rams' three man advantages in the period. Before the intermission, Brock evened things at 3-3 when Girhiny expertly tipped a shot from defenceman Cole Thiessen that ricocheted past Forrest. 

"It was a pretty quick game," Rams captain Jared Walsh noted. "We should outskill them, but they outworked us a bit tonight and a couple mistakes didn't go our way and it's a game of mistakes."

Though the Rams came out flying in the third period, the Badgers took the lead with minutes remaining on a questionable play that involved a throng of Badgers crashing into Forrest. After a series of frantic shoves and pushes, the Badgers' Jared Marino knocked it just past the Rams' goalie to give Brock a decisive late-game lead. The Rams bench, including Duco and associate coach Nathaniel Brooks, was livid, who skated promptly to the bench to explain their questionable call. 

"I think there were multiple breakdowns in the play where it could've been blown down," Duco added of the pivotal call. 

Before time expired, Brock's Marino fired a rolling puck into the Rams' empty net to seal the deal and end any comeback for the blue and gold. After it was all said and done, the Rams dropped their season opener in heartbreaking fashion.

On Saturday, the Rams will look to get into the win column as they take on the Badgers on the road in St. Catharines. The puck drops at 5:15 p.m. and all the action can be viewed at OUA.tv.