The University of Toronto Varsity Blues men’s hockey team dropped a close 3-2 decision to the McGill Redmen in game one of the OUA quarter-final round on Wednesday, February 25 at McConnell Arena.

Despite outshooting the Redmen 12-6 and having five powerplay opportunities, the game remained scoreless after the first period of play.

McGill dominated the rest of the game as they limited Toronto to only seven shots in the second and third periods combined.

First-year standout Byron Elliott (Burlington, Ont.) opened the scoring on a Toronto powerplay, 1:08 into the second period. Kyle Ventura (Scarborough, Ont.) and Ed Snetsinger (Ajax, Ont.) picked up the assists to put the Blues up 1-0.

Toronto’s lead would not last long as Redmen forwards Marc-Andre Dorion (St. Hubert, Que.) and Marko Kovacevic (Belgrade, Serbia) each capitalized on McGill’s next two man-advantage situations.

The Redmen held a 2-1 lead going into the final frame.

McGill outplayed Toronto for most of the third with second-year goaltender Russ Brownell (Oakville, Ont.) standing on his head, doing everything he could to keep his team in the game. However, second-year McGill forward Guillaume Doucet (Montreal, Que.) found a way past Brownell when he added an even-strength insurance goal with less than four minutes remaining in the game.

With Redmen defenceman Yan Turcotte (Laval, Que.) in the penalty box and Brownell on the Blues bench, Toronto was able to cut the lead to one on the six-on-four opportunity with 38 seconds to go in the game.

Ventura and Snetsinger each added their second helpers of the night as they set up assistant captain Joe Rand (Hamilton, Ont.) for his 16th goal of the season.

Unfortunately, it was too little, too late for Toronto as McGill held onto the 3-2 lead at the sound of the buzzer.

Brownell turned aside 29 shots in the loss.

The Varsity Blues return home for game two of this playoff series against the Redmen on Saturday, February 28 at Varsity Arena. The puck drops at 7:30 p.m.