The No. 5 University of Toronto Varsity Blues men's hockey team defeated the Windsor Lancers 9-3 on Saturday night (Feb 1) to clinch the top spot in the OUA West division.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED: The Blues got on the board early as Nathan Hudgin picked up a loose puck in the neutral zone, walked in and buried his ninth of the season. Rookie forward Steven Elliott broke in on a two-on-one opportunity and buried a Kyle Potts pass into the wide open cage for his first career OUA goal. Brennan Feasey got the Lancers on the board with just over two minutes remaining in the period to cut the Blues lead to one after 20 minutes.
 
Toronto scored early again in the second period as Elliott took advantage of a sloppy Windsor line change. He came in on a breakaway and buried it five hole on Lancers goalie Jonathan Reinhart. Windsor got themselves back within one as Sean Olson buried a one-timer from the slot. The Blues got into some penalty trouble in the second period but they ended up being the ones to take advantage. Kyle Clarke scored a shorthanded goal as he followed up on a Scott Kirton wrap around attempt, extending the Blues lead back to two. Kevin Lavoie and Ross Krieger broke out on a two-on-one chance and made a nice tic-tac-toe play, giving U of T a three-goal lead. The Blues took a late penalty in the second but Clarke picked up a turnover and scored his second shorthanded goal of the game. On the same powerplay, Ben Assad scored in the dying seconds of the period to give the Lancers hope going into the third and final period.
 
The Varsity Blues didn't let up in the third, as their offence continued to dominate. Right before the halfway mark of the frame, the Blues scored three goals in 53 seconds. The first came from Krieger, who took a pass in the slot from Potts and made no mistake, putting it behind Reinhart. Toronto's leading scorer David Thomson got on the board with a highlight reel, between-the-legs goal. Krieger walked into the zone and ripped home his second of the night to give the Blues their ninth goal of the evening and put the Lancers out of reach.
 
Second-year goalie Alex Bishop made 26 saves in the winning effort.
 
UP NEXT: The Blues last two games of the regular season are on the road, starting on Friday (Feb 7) as they look to take down the high-flying Guelph Gryphons. Puck drop is at 7:30pm.
 
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