The University of Toronto Varsity Blues men’s hockey team came away with a 3-1 victory over the Brock Badgers on Saturday, October 11 at Varsity Arena.

Toronto dominated the first period, creating opportunities all over the ice. The Blues capitalized on a two-man advantage when first-year social science student Byron Elliott (Burlington, Ont.) buried an Ed Snetsinger (Ajax, Ont.) rebound to put Toronto up by one.

Minutes later, Blues goaltender Russ Brownell (Oakville, Ont.) made a beautiful save on a Badgers short-handed breakaway to maintain the 1-0 lead at the end of the first period.

Toronto’s rookie line of Elliott, Kyle Ventura (Scarborough, Ont) and Claudio Cowdrey (Mississauga, Ont.) tallied the Blues second goal. Elliott fed a beautiful tape-to-tape pass to Ventura who then set up Cowdrey for the power-play goal, midway through the second period.

Brock began to apply pressure in the third and it paid off as Dan Dooley (St. John, N.B.) sent a booming shot at Brownell and second-year defenceman Steve Pattison (Red Deer, Alta.) was there to tap in the rebound.

The Badgers pulled their goalie with a minute to go but the Blues restricted any more Brock chances and Brendan Sherrard (Toronto, Ont.) potted the empty-net goal with four seconds left to secure the 3-1 win for the Blues.

Brownell made 34 saves in the victory and was named the Blues player of the game for his efforts.

The Varsity Blues travel to Oshawa next Friday, October 17 to take the UOIT Ridgebacks. The puck drops at 7:30 p.m.