The No. 3 University of Toronto Varsity Blues men's hockey team ­defeated the Guelph Gryphons 8-2 on Saturday night (Jan 11) at Gryphon Centre Arena.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED: The Blues offence was flying early. The OUA leading point getter David Thomson made a nice move and buried it to open up the scoring 7:28 into the game. Stephen Templeton got the Gryphons into penalty trouble, taking six minutes of penalties at once. Thomson, Hunter Atchison, and Nathan Hudgin all scored within 1:43 of each other to fully capitalize on the Templeton triple minor. The Gryphons would take another penalty and Evan Maceachern would cap off the Blues five goal first period.
 
Guelph took five more penalties in the second period. They were able to kill off all but one in which Kyle Potts buried a pass from Thomson into an open net with just 42 second left in the second frame. The Blues headed to the dressing room 5/9 on the powerplay and led 6-0 through 40 minutes.
 
The Gryphons offence acted quickly in the third as Mikkel Aagaard scored just 26 seconds into the period. Luke Kutkevicius would add another goal for Guelph just before the halfway mark of the third, cutting the Toronto lead to four. The Blues pushed back as Joey Manchurek and Chase Olsen restored Toronto's six goal lead to solidify their victory.
 
Blues second year goalie Alex Bishop made 27 saves in the winning effort and Thomson finished the night with a team leading four points (1G, 3A).
 
UP NEXT: The Blues are back at Varsity Arena on Friday night (Jan 17) to battle the Windsor Lancers at 7:00pm.
 
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