For over 46 minutes it looked like the Blues might just pull out a victory over the Ottawa Gee-Gees Saturday afternoon at Varsity Arena, but it was the visitors who came away with a huge two points thanks to two goals late in the third, spoiling a strong effort from Blues netminder Jamie Bruno.
The Markham, Ontario native stopped 43 of 46 shots fired his way, but some sloppy defensive play late in the game cost the Blues (4-6-3) a valuable two points in the standings and enabled the visiting Gee-Gees (8-4-1) to skate away with a 3-2 victory.
Despite being outshot and outplayed for two periods, it was U of T who broke a 1-1 tie at 3:12 of the third as Brandon Barbowski pounced on a rebound to put the Blues ahead. It seemed the Blues might hang on until disaster struck with 5:40 left. That’s when Ottawa’s Hugo Giguere fired a wrist shot that bounced in off the skate of Wayne Hall to tie the game.
“We just can’t seem to get a bounce go our way to get over the hump,” lamented Blues coach Darren Lowe of the tying goal by Ottawa.
From there, Ottawa kept up the pressure and was rewarded with exactly four minutes left. Giguere’s shot was stopped by Bruno, but the Blues’ goalie’s clearing attempt went straight to Ottawa’s Brock Boucher, who beat Bruno on the blocker side to give the Gee-Gees their first and only lead of the game.
The hometown squad, playing in a rare televised game, tried to fight back late, but failed to generate any late quality scoring opportunities.
The Blues ended up getting outshot 14-5 in the final frame, as a chance to pass Mideast Division leader Ryerson slipped through their fingers.
Generating offence has been U of T’s bane through much of this season, a surprise considering it was the strength of last year’s squad. The difficulty in putting the biscuit in the basket was a carryover from a holiday tournament in Saskatchewan, where the Blues could only score one meagre goal in two losses by scores of 2-0 and 2-1.
“There’s two key things. Our power play hasn’t put the puck in the net and special teams are often going to be what makes the difference in close games,” assessed Lowe. “The second thing is, we’re going to have to learn to pay the price to get some ugly goals and crash the net instead of trying to make the perfect pass all the time.”
Mike Nason opened the scoring for the Blues when he ripped a shot to the low glove side on a nice pass from Mark Hynes just after a power play had expired. Mark Cooper also grabbed an assist on the play.
Mike Courneau tied the score for the Gee-Gees at 18:39 of the second. The final shots were 46-30 in favour of Ottawa.
The next day the offensive struggles continued as the Blues dropped a 4-1 decision to McGill at Varsity Arena. U of T will next see action at RMC this Sunday, with their next home game a week from Friday against division rival Queen’s.
(with files from Blair Sanderson)
