The University of Toronto Varsity Blues men’s hockey team suffered a 3-2 overtime loss to the Western Mustangs on Sunday, January 4 at Varsity Arena.

Western defenceman Jason Swit (Mississauga, Ont.) was the overtime hero, finishing off a beautiful two-on-one opportunity to secure the Mustangs victory.

The Blues got off to a good start, creating many opportunities in the opening minutes of the game. However, after a scoreless first period, it was Western who opened up the scoring on their first powerplay opportunity. Fourth-year defenceman Chris Petrow (Haliburton, Ont.) sent a shot from the point at the Blues net and Jeffrey Martens (Maple Ridge, B.C.) was there to pounce on the rebound to put the Mustangs up by one.

Western capitalized again at the midway point of the game as Petrow sent another booming point shot through traffic to beat Blues goaltender Russ Brownell (Oakville, Ont.). Just over a minute later, Blues leading scorer Byron Elliott (Burlington, Ont.) got his squad on the board, capitalizing on a scramble in front of the Western net. The Mustangs held a narrow 2-1 lead going into the third period.

Things were looking weary for the Toronto squad until second-year forward and Blues player of the game Sean Fontyn (Mississauga, Ont.) scored his first goal of the season to tie things up when he tipped an Ed Snetsinger (Ajax, Ont.) point shot past Mustangs goalie Brad Topping (Strathroy, Ont.).

Western forwards Aaron Snow (Windsor, Ont.) and Sal Peralta (Leamington, Ont.) assisted on Swit’s goal with 2:04 into the overtime period.

The Varsity Blues return to action next Friday, January 9 when they host the No. 9 Waterloo Warriors at Varsity Arena. The puck drops at 7:30 p.m.