The wear and tear of a full season of tough hockey can get to any team, no matter how dominating they may be. But with no major injuries to report and with the team playing some great hockey, the Varsity Blues men’s squad seems to be peaking at just the right time. Luckily, they’re flying high right before the 2003 OUA men’s hockey playoffs.
Friday night saw the Blues take on the Concordia Stingers at Varsity Arena. For the second straight season, Concordia has been eliminated from the playoff picture in the ultra-competitive Quebec conference.
The Blues, on the other hand, are rounding into form. Before last Friday’s game, U of T had already wrapped up first place in the OUA Mid-East Conference, guaranteeing themselves an opening-round bye.
In a rough first period, the teams piled up 14 penalties and played choppily right from the opening face-off. The Blues took many retaliatory penalties, uncharacteristic for a team coached by disciplinarian Darren Lowe.
U of T opened the scoring in the first period at 4:45 on a power play. Blues center George Trifon deflected a point shot by defencemen Wes Booker past the Concordia goalkeeper. The Blues gained momentum after that, scoring two more quick goals.
The Blues’ second goal came from left-winger Tyler Middlebrook, who fired a beautiful wrist shot to the top corner of the Concordia net. Frank Pallotta put the Blues up by three at 7:54 of the first, but the team would go to the dressing room with a 3-1 lead after a late Stingers goal.
The tide turned in Concordia’s favour early in the second stanza, when the Stingers scored 33 seconds into the period to pull within one. A costly give-away in U of T’s zone allowed Concordia center Jonathan Gautier to snap a beautiful shot past a defenseless Jamie Bruno.
Concordia tied the game at 15:22 in the third period sending the game to overtime. The extra frame decided nothing and the game ended in a 3-3 tie.
“We settled down with the penalties but (the Blues) started the game with high tempo,” said Concordia defencemen Greg Dunn. “There is a lot of pride on this team and we were not going to let up at any point, even when we’re playing a team with a lot of depth and talent like the Blues.”
On Saturday, it was all about blood, sweat and tears at Varsity Arena. A boisterous and enthusiastic crowd bought tickets to a hockey game, but ended up being treated to a war between two bitter rivals.
The (17-1-2) University du Quebec a Trois-Rivieres Patriotes (UQTR), ranked second in the CIS, were upset by the surging Blues, who were unimpressed by their opponent’s stature.
A flashback is required to understand the intensity of this rivalry. Last year, in the OUA semifinals, the Blues gave up a 3-2 lead late in the third period and ended up losing to the Patriotes 4-3 in overtime. At UQTR earlier this season, the Patriotes hammered the Blues 7-1 in a game that included 21 power plays, of which 16 were in favour of UQTR.
“There is obviously a rivalry built up between these two teams,” said Blues head coach Darren Lowe. “We took it on the chin when we went down there, so we wanted to return the favour on home ice.”
The Blues were able to grab a 2-1 advantage through the first 40 minutes on a pair of goals from captain Steve Murphey. He showed a wealth of experience, composure and leadership that seemed to inspire the rest of the Blues and would eventually net him player of the game honours.
“Murphey has had two good games back to back for us,” said Lowe. “This is the type of performance we were expecting when we made him captain.”
Blues goalie Jamie Bruno made two incredible saves in the second half of the contest, one late in the second and one early in the third. Both came when UQTR was sustaining pressure in the Blues’ zone, threatening the slim 2-1 lead.
The third period saw the Blues add two more goals to secure a 4-2 win. The last period was highlighted by physical play more than scoring. There was pushing and shoving after virtually every whistle, with two near-brawls breaking out in the last five minutes.
“We knew coming in they were going to play physical,” said Malcolm. “We stepped up to their level and for the most part we took it too them.”
Lowe praised his team’s defensive effort, but said they still need to improve their discipline.
“We played very well defensively, especially considering they have scored 110 goals this year and have the leading scorer in the country (Alex Tremblay). But we have to stay out of the penalty box. We can’t get sucked in to taking penalties. They scored twice on the power play tonight.”
This game was undoubtedly a huge victory for the Blues, who head into their last two regular-season games on a seven-game unbeaten streak.
