The Varsity Blues men’s hockey team snapped the Nipissing Lakers six-game win streak with a 4-1 victory on Wednesday, January 19 at Varsity Arena.

With the win, the Blues improve to 7-8-6 and move into seventh place, while the Lakers drop to 12-7-3 and remain in third in the OUA East division.

Third-year forward and assistant captain Byron Elliott recorded his 100th career point midway through the second period. The Burlington, Ont., native has totalled 44 goals and 56 assists in 72 regular season and playoff games to date.

The Blues opened the scoring just 1:17 into the contest when first-year forward Blake Boddy of Ajax, Ont., received a pass from Dan Brewer (Cambridge, Ont.) all alone in front and quickly found the back of the net.

Toronto went up by two 10 minutes later on the powerplay as Scarborough, Ont., native Kyle Ventura came streaking over the blue line and wired a shot over the glove of Nipissing goaltender Matt Hache (Guelph, Ont.).

The Blues held a 2-0 lead after the first period of play.

Nipissing finally got on the board seven minutes into the second frame when rookie forward and Hamilton, Ont., native Conor O’Donnell jumped on a Brodie Beard rebound to the left of Blues netminder Andrew Martin.

Elliott responded just five minutes later, redirecting a Sean Kliewer (Brunkid, Man.) point shot to regain a two-goal cushion heading into the third.

The play went back-and-forth in the final frame, with both goaltenders coming up with some huge saves. Brewer would add an empty-netter with just over a minute remaining to secure the 4-1 win.

Martin posted 21 saves in the win, while Jeff Zippel was named the Varsity Blues player of the game for his efforts.

The Varsity Blues return to action on Friday, January 21 when they host the Ryerson Rams at Varsity Arena. Game time is set for 7:30 p.m. Fans can catch the action live on SSN Canada through varsityblues.ca.

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