The University of Toronto Varsity Blues men’s hockey team’s season came to an end as they fell 3-1 to the Ryerson Rams in Game 2 of the OUA East quarter-final series on Thursday, February 18 at George Bell Arena.

The Blues, who finished the season in third place in the OUA East division, dropped a 6-0 decision to the Rams in Game 1 last night (Feb. 17) at Varsity Arena and could not come back to force a third and deciding game in the best-of-three series.

In what would be a penalty-filled affair, the Rams opened the scoring on their first powerplay opportunity off the stick of fourth-year forward Kevin Day (Toronto). Despite the early one-goal deficit, the Blues picked up their play and outshot the Rams 15-10 in the first frame.

Blues leading scorer Byron Elliott of Burlington, Ont. was finally able to solve Ryerson goaltender Paul Gibson (St. Thomas, Ont.) just three minutes later with a shorthanded marker to even the score. The game remained deadlocked at the first intermission.

The Rams got back to their dominant style of play in the second and third periods, peppering Blues netminder Andrew Martin (Mississauga, Ont.) with shots. The third-year goalie turned aside 19 second-period shots to keep the game even heading into the final frame.

Rookie forward Andrew Buck (Newmarket, Ont.) scored his first goal of the playoffs just 2:05 into the third period, assisted by Greg Payne (Thornhill, Ont.) and Alex Sharpe (Mt. Forest, Ont.).

The Rams built off that momentum to score another even-strength goal just over two minutes later by assistant captain Brent Small (Pickering, Ont.).

Despite their best efforts, Toronto could not muster a comeback in the final 15 minutes to salvage their 2009-10 season.

Martin made 39 saves in the loss.