Box Score The University of Toronto Varsity Blues men's hockey team fell 3-1 to the No. 7 Lakehead Thunderwolves as the second half of the season kicked off on Friday, January 3 at Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay, Ont.

With the loss, the Blues drop to 9-6-2 and drop into fifth place, while the Thunderwolves improve to 12-3-0 and remain atop the OUA West standings.

Lakehead opened the scoring midway through the first period as Andrew Wilkins found the back of the net on a weird bounce. The home team extended their lead with a Mitch Fillman point shot through traffic just over a minute later.

Third-year forward Tyler von Engelbrechten (Markham, Ont.) got the Blues on the board with 34 seconds remaining in the opening frame, capitalizing on a bad Lakehead breakout to bang the puck past Jeff Bosch for his sixth goal of the season.

Blues goaltender Brett Willows (Rivers, Man.) made a couple of big saves in a scoreless second period to keep the game within one heading into the final frame. Toronto continued to pressure in the third, but were unable to find the back of the net again. The Thunderwolves added an empty net goal with 28 seconds remaining to round out the 3-1 victory.

Willows totalled 24 saves in the loss.

The two teams complete the doubleheader tomorrow night, also at Fort William Gardens, at 7:30 p.m. The game will be streamed live on SSN Canada. 

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