Byron Elliott was the shoot out hero for the second consecutive night as the Varsity Blues men’s hockey team defeated the UOIT Ridgebacks 3-2 on Saturday, November 27 at Varsity Arena.

With the win, the Blues improve to 5-7-3 and move into seventh place in the OUA East, while the Ridgebacks drop to 5-7-4 and are eighth in the West division.

After Blues rookie Anthony Bergin (Scarborough, Ont.) and UOIT’s Derrick Bagshaw of Oshawa, Ont., both made good on their shoot out attempts, Elliott (Burlington, Ont.) stepped up with some quick stick handling and beat Ridgebacks goaltender Jason Guy through his five-hole for the game-winner.

First-year forward Kevin George of Uxbridge, Ont., scored just 33 seconds into the contest to give the visiting Ridgebacks a quick edge. However, the Blues bounced back and went on to outshoot UOIT 22-1 and scored two late goals to take the lead heading into the first intermission.

Rookie forward Blake Boddy (Ajax, Ont.) finished off a nice tic-tac-toe play with Anthony Bergin and Kyle Ventura to get the Blues on the board. Varsity Blues player of the game and Toronto native Bryden Teich followed that up just over two minutes later when he backhanded a Robert Kay rebound into the net.

After a scoreless second period, the Ridgebacks finally evened the score with just over four minutes remaining in regulation. Bagshaw picked up the rebound off a Chris Purves point shot and backhanded it in to force overtime.

Despite a late powerplay opportunity for the Blues, overtime solved nothing as the game headed into a shoot out for the second straight night at Varsity Arena.

Martin came up with 21 saves in the win.

The Varsity Blues return to the ice next Friday, December 3 when they travel to North Bay, Ont., to take on the Nipissing Lakers. Game time is 7 p.m.

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