The Varsity Blues men’s hockey team skated to a crucial 6-4 win over their division rivals, the Ottawa Gee-Gees on Friday, November 30 at Varsity Arena.
 
The Blues have now earned two of the four points needed this weekend to jump back into second-place in the OUA East division. They currently sit tied with the Carleton Ravens (19 points apiece), who have a game in hand. 
 
U of T’s top forward trio of Jeff Brown, Blake Boddy, and Tyler Liukkonen led the way in this contest. Brown (Toronto) registered a goal and two assists to give him the outright team lead in points with 18. Boddy (Scarborough, Ont.) had two assists to add to his team-leading total of 12 on the season, and Sault Ste Marie native Liukkonen picked up a goal to give the line a combined six points on the night. Rookie defenceman Lane Werbowski (Winnipeg) had a stellar night as well, scoring a goal and adding two assists en route to being named the game’s third star.
 
Netminder Garrett Sheehan (Cremona, Alta.) made 46 saves to earn the win.
 
The Blues were nothing if not opportunistic, scoring two goals on their first two shots of the game. Brown opened the scoring, when he caught Ottawa on a bad line change, and took a pass from Werbowski before snapping a shot over Gee-Gee’s goalie Russell Abbott. Toronto struck again just under a minute later on a goal from Michael Markovic (Toronto), who took a pass in the corner, spun and swept it underneath Abbott to make it 2-0. 
 
Penalty trouble would allow Ottawa back in the game late in the first, with Nicolas Larocque Marcoux scoring just as a 5-on-3 advantage came to an end.
 
Luikkonen restored the two-goal lead at 15:24 of the second. After Brown grabbed the loose puck off a face-off in the Blues end, he fired a pass to Luikkonen, who chipped it past the Gee-Gee’s defence and raced in alone before ripping the puck top shelf.
 
The two teams traded goals late in the second, with the Blues scoring on the powerplay, when Werbowski took a pass from Boddy and blasted a one-timer home to increase the lead to three. Larocque-Marcoux then cut into that lead just 27 seconds later, squeaking a sharp angle shot past Sheehan. 
 
The Gee-Gee’s would score two goals thirty seconds apart to start the third and even the score at 4-4, but Toronto regained their composure, and fired back.
 
At 13:09, Tyler von Engelbrechten (Markham, Ont.) one-timed a shot from the slot over Abbott’s glove-hand to put the Blues back in front, and Kyle Ventura (Scarborough, Ont.) then sealed it with his team-leading 10th of the season, off a Gee-Gee’s defender. 
 
Ottawa went with the extra attacker in the final moments, but the Blues held them off to earn the win by a score of 6-4.
 
Nicolas Laroque-Marcoux had two goals for The Gee-Gee’s and was named the game’s second star.
 
The Blues will try and continue their climb up the standings tomorrow night (Dec. 1) when they host the Concordia Stingers at Varsity Arena. The puck drops at 7:30 p.m. 
 
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