Byron Elliott recorded his 50th career goal and was the shootout hero as the Varsity Blues men’s hockey team edged the York Lions 5-4 in their 2011-12 season opener on Thursday night (Oct. 6) at Canlan Ice Sports.

Second-year Blues forward Michael Markovic of Toronto evened the score with 26 seconds remaining in regulation to force overtime.

A native of Burlington, Ont., Elliott was the lone goal-scorer in the shootout, as U of T’s sophomore goaltender Garrett Sheehan (Cremona, Alta.) stopped all three York shooters to secure Toronto’s first win of the season.

Elliott opened the scoring, tallying his 50th career (regular season and playoff) goal eight minutes into the game; however, the Lions would respond with a powerplay marker late in the first period and the score remained 1-1 after 20 minutes of action.

York surged ahead with two quick goals off the sticks of Evan Gravenor and Bryan Weinberg in the first 5:07 of the second period.

Second-year forward Kyle Ventura of Scarborough, Ont., closed the gap three minutes later, beating York goalie David Blair for his first goal of the season.

With York’s Rob Labute in the box for a slashing penalty, U of T capitalized when Markovic tied the game at 3-3 with only 18 seconds to go in the second period.

Labute would bounce back for the home team, scoring the go-ahead goal with less than four minutes remaining in regulation, but Toronto took control from there and pulled out the win.

Sheehan made 19 saves in the win.

The Varsity Blues return to action tomorrow night as they host the Queen’s Gaels in their 2011-12 home opener at Varsity Arena.  The puck drops at 7:30 p.m.

The game will be streamed live on SSN Canada through varsityblues.ca. Advance tickets are on sale: click here or call 416-946-3811.

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