The Varsity Blues men’s hockey team were narrowly defeated 3-1 by the Western Mustangs on Saturday, October 15 at Varsity Arena.

The Blues drop to 2-1-0 and sit in sixth place in the OUA East, while the Mustangs improve to 3-0-1 and remain on top of the West division.

Rookie forward Tyler von Engelbrechten scored the Blues only goal of the game midway through the second period on the powerplay, evening the score at 1-1. The Markham, Ont. native fired a wrist shot from the slot that found its way through Western goaltender Josh Unice. Byron Elliott (Burlington, Ont.) and Dan Brewer (Cambridge, Ont.) assisted on the goal.

The Blues controlled play for most of the first period but a rash of penalties turned momentum in favour of the Mustangs before Yashar Farmanara buried his own rebound at 13:12 to open the scoring.

After von Engelbrechten evened the score in the second, the Blues fell behind 2-1 midway through the third period on a goal from Western’s Keaton Turkiewicz. Toronto would pull goaltender Garrett Sheehan (Cremona, Alta.) in the final minute to press for the tying goal, but Blues captain Andrew Kizito (Toronto) was turned away on a point shot with nine seconds remaining.

Farmara would then add an empty net goal—his second of the game—in the final seconds to secure the victory for the visiting squad.

Western’s Turkiewicz and Toronto’s Michael Markovic earned player of the game honours.

The game was played with a RUBR brand hockey puck, a Canadian-made hockey puck made from rubber tapped naturally from the trees of Liberia. The pucks began circulation October 14 and will be used by all 64 universities across the country.

The Blues return to action this Wednesday, October 19 when they take on the Ryerson Rams at Varsity Arena. Game time is 7:30 p.m.



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