Photo credit: Patrick Eugster
TORONTO - The University of Toronto Varsity Blues scored with 26
seconds left and then won in a shootout over the York University
Lions by a score of 5-4 in the season opener for both teams on
Thursday evening (Oct. 6) at Canlan Ice Sports.
The crowd was cheering as the players took to the ice and soon
after, the puck was dropped on the 2011-12 ice hockey season and
the 50th anniversary of the York program.
The Lions (0-0-1) opened the season winning the first face-off and
headed deep into the offensive zone. The game proved to be a
fast, hard-hitting affair as the two rivals met on the ice, each
earning a fair share of penalty minutes.
Lions starting goaltender David Blair of Ajax, Ont., was strong at
the start and made three daring saves during a double penalty
kill.
The Lions met a temporary setback when Toronto's Byron Elliott
(Burlington, Ont.) scored the first goal of the game to give the
Varsity Blues a 1-0 lead early in the contest.
However, the Varsity Blues (1-0-0) made a critical mistake late in
the first period, earning two minor penalties and a 10-minute game
misconduct, giving the Lions a two-man advantage in which they took
advantage of. With four minutes remaining in the first,
winger Evan Gravenor of Winnipeg, belted the bouncing puck into the
Varsity Blues net, rocketing it deep into the mesh and tying the
game at 1-1. Earning assists on the play were Matt Thomson
(Kitchener, Ont.), and Jordan Davies of (Winnipeg).
The first period of play rounded out with a score of 1-1.
After a short intermission that included a high energy dance number
by the York University Dance Team and a raffle, the crowd was ready
for the exciting second period.
At the beginning of the period the intensity between the two rivals
continued and both teams piled up the penalty minutes.
Less than four minutes into the second period Gravenor, playing in
his first regular-season CIS game, pounded back his second goal of
the game with another assist to Davies, also a first-year
player.
The Lions kept up the excitement with a quick goal two minutes
later by Jordan Pavic (York, Ont.), and assisted by Chris Wiggin
(Brampton, Ont.), bringing the score to 3-1 in favour of the home
team.
A goal by Kyle Ventura (Scarborough, Ont.) mid-way through the
second made the score 3-2, and the Lions lead was erased by another
power play marker in the dying seconds of the period on a goal by
Michael Markovic (Toronto).
The Lions fought hard in the third period, meeting their man on the
ice and boxing out the Varsity Blues. Blair aggressively defended
the goal when the Varsity Blues managed to squeeze through the York
wall, while the Lions continued to punish the Varsity Blues goal
but were kept at bay for the majority of the period and the score
remained tied.
Halfway through the third, the Lions earned a dangerous penalty for
goalie interference which led to them facing the Varsity Blues'
strongest third period power play assault. However, the Lions
persevered and along with Blair's spectacular presence in net,
successfully killed the penalty.
The Lions continued their blitz at they increased the pressure on
the opposite net.
With 5:30 remaining, third-year centre Mackenzie Micks of Orillia,
Ont., laid a thunderous hit on one Toronto player, sending him to
the ice and drawing cheers from the crowd.
Soon after the Lions regained possession and cleared the defensive
zone. On the next rush back the other way, Rob Labute of Toronto
scored the go-ahead goal with an assist to rookie Troy Barss
(Barrie, Ont.), giving the Lions a 4-3 lead late in the third.
Desperate to find the equalizer, the Varsity Blues forced the play
deep into the Lions end for most of the remaining time in the game.
The Lions continued to apply defensive pressure and Blair made a
sprawling save in which he also took a hit from a Varsity Blues
player and was slow to get up, but he remained in the game.
A timeout was called with a 1:01 left on the clock. When play
resumed, both sides fought aggressively for possession and the
Varsity Blues eventually got the tying goal thanks to Markovic's
second of the game to send it to overtime.
The Lions fought hard for the puck and kept possession for most of
the overtime play, taking hard shots and weaving through the
Varsity Blues players, but neither side could get the puck in the
net during the overtime.
The only player to score in the shootout was Toronto's Blake Boddy,
the team's second shooter of the night, while goalie Garrett
Sheehan stopped all three Lions shooters to preserve the win.
The Lions are the only team in the OUA West Division to have begun
the season and have one point in the standings. The Varsity Blues
earned two points with the win.
The Lions will return to the ice on Saturday (Oct. 8) to face the
UOIT Ridgebacks at 7:30pm in Oshawa, Ont., for their first road
game of the season.
Prior to the game, the season was kicked off with the announcement
of the William Purcell Bursary, named after the former head coach
of the York Yeomen men's hockey team.
Source: Andrew Viarruel, York sport writing assistant