LONDON, ON—Twenty-nine seconds. That’s what separated the men’s hockey team from making their first trip to Nationals in nine years. Leading the defending national champions by a goal with time winding down in regulation, the Blues eventually fell on the wrong side of a 4-3 overtime decision because of what appeared to be a blown call by the officiating crew.

Up to that point, Toronto had been successfully holding off UQTR’s rushes during a third period that saw them hold a 3-2 lead from the 6:35 mark onward. However, with just under half a minute to go in the period, controversy grabbed hold of the OUA semifinal playoff game at Thompson Arena.

Amidst a scramble of players in front of the Toronto net, the puck appeared to cross the goal line after one of the players had dislodged the posts from their pegs. In addition, the puck may have made its way into the net from the glove of UQTR’s Simon Tremblay (1 goal).

Initially the linesman waved off the goal, but after vocal protest from the UQTR bench, the play was discussed amongst the officials. After a few minutes of deliberation, they awarded the goal to the Patriotes (18-8-1).

“It was unfortunate that we were that close to getting to national championships,” said coach Darren Lowe.

Following the reversal, the Patriotes clearly came away with the psychological edge.

After struggling to mount consistent pressure on Toronto’s OUA All-Star goalie Jamie Bruno (29 saves) during regulation, they had a 7-2 advantage in shots on goal in the overtime period (26-24 advantage through regulation).

The last blow came off the rebound of a Philippe Tremblay shot that was slotted past Bruno by OUA All-Star forward Jean-Phillippe Pare (2 goals) 7:01 into the ten-minute extra period.

The Blues (15-8-4) came out with a lot more energy than the three-time defending conference champions, outshooting the Patriotes 7-4 in the first period.

The effort translated into an early advantage, as Brandon Barbowski blocked UQTR goalie Eric Desjardins’ (23 saves) line of sight while assistant captain Mark Cooper (2 goals) blasted a slap shot past the goalie 13:37 into the game for a 1-0 lead.

“They’ve been a dominant team in this league the whole year, so there was no pressure on us,” said fifth-year Cooper. “We just came and played our hearts out, let the chips fall where they may, and unfortunately they didn’t fall our way.”

The Patriotes provided a quick answer, with Pare scoring at the 16:08 mark to knot the game at one entering the first intermission.

The second period continued the tit-for-tat nature of the game, as Jean-Pierre Cadorette’s goal at 4:25 was followed by another Cooper slap shot into the mesh at 5:23 into the period.

OUA All-Star forward Ian Malcolm (21 goals regular season, 2nd OUA) put away a loose puck in front of the net 6:35 into the third, giving the Blues a 3-2 lead that lasted until 29 seconds were left.

“I bet you we could play a hundred games, we’d win fifty and they’d win fifty,” added Cooper of Friday’s opponent.

Unfortunately, on this night it wasn’t Toronto’s turn.

The Patriotes advanced to play tournament host Western (W5-3 over York) in Sunday’s Queen’s Cup final.