The University of Toronto Varsity Blues men's hockey team won 6-3 against the York Lions in a Friday (Oct. 25) afternoon game at Canlan Sports - York.
In their third game of a four-game road-trip, the Blues were close to home facing the Lions. Taking advantage of the short trip, the Blues were able to come out flying in the first 20 minutes, outshooting and outplaying the Lions with a strong show of offensive prowess. Back-and-forth action throughout led to multiple opportunities and scoring chances, but no one could find the back of the net. That was until late in the first period when on a power play Owen Robinson tossed the puck across the offensive zone to first-year forward Dylan Wightman, who lasered a shot home from the top of the circle to bring the lead to 1-0. The end of the period saw the Blues kill their own penalty and keep the Lion's score at nil.
The second period intensified as the Blues fought to maintain control. Early in the frame, a U of T penalty seemed to shift the momentum, giving York a prime scoring chance against Toronto's starting goaltender Jordan Fairlie. However, the Fort St. John, B.C., native made a solid save, which allowed the puck to be cleared and set up Robinson and Jacob King for a two-on-one down the ice. Robinson delivered another perfect pass to King, who lifted it over Lions goalie Carter Serhyenko to score the Blues second short-handed goal of the season. Only a few moments later, Robinson grabbed another loose puck from a turnover in the Lions zone and performed a beautiful give-and-go play with Zack Smith to find the open net and put in a third U of T goal through 40 minutes.
York ended up getting onto the board in the third, with Mason Svarich building momentum for the home side with two goals scored. Responding, Toronto continued to fight to lengthen the gap again, and on another power play, Robinson fired a pass across to Nicholas Wong who threw it into the open net and grabbed his second goal of the season, restoring a 4-2 advantage. In the final minutes, the Lions refused to leave without a fight, pulling their goalie for a six-on-five advantage which led to Brandon McCartney putting a clean shot past Fairlie to once again draw within one goal of the Blues. However, Robinson and Ben Woodhouse each added empty-net markers for U of T to put an end to any come-from-behind efforts for the bitter rivals.
The Blues next make a quick trip to Ithaca, New York for an exciting exhibition game against Cornell University on Saturday (Oct. 26), before traveling to Waterloo to challenge the Warriors on Wednesday (Oct. 30).
