Blues’ university championship hopes suffer a ‘sudden death’

Lakehead Thunderwolves’ captain Joel Scherban scored his third goal of the game 12 minutes into the second overtime period to defeat U of T’s Varsity Blues 6-5, earning Lakehead the OUA bronze medal and the conference’s third and final berth in the 2003 CIS Championship.

The Varsity Blues held a 4-3 advantage with five minutes to go in the third period, before the Thunderwolves’ Chris Shaffer tied it up. Then, with 2:28 remaining, Robert Hilliard gave Lakehead a 5-4 lead with what looked like the game winner. However, with the U of T net empty, Tyler Middlebrook scored on a goal-mouth scramble with just 16 seconds to play, forcing overtime.

U of T controlled the game’s opening 25 minutes and had a 3-1 lead early. Lakehead’s Scherban scored the game’s first goal on the power play, 1:24 into the first period, before the Varsity Blues responded with three straight markers. Steve Hoar scored at 5:14 of the first, banging in a rebound off of an Aaron Wilson shot from the point. Then, just 25 seconds later, George Trifon pounced on another big rebound from Thunderwolves’ goaltender Grant McCune, and it was 2-1 U of T at the break.

U of T captain Steve Murphy, who assisted on Trifon’s goal, gave the Varsity Blues a two-goal advantage two minutes into period number two. The fourth-year centre raced into the Lakehead zone and after a great individual effort, slid the puck past McCune.

The Thunderwolves kept coming at the Blues however, and were rewarded with a pair of goals just 20 seconds apart in the second. The first came from Scherban, at 6:49, that bounded in off of a Varsity Blues skate in front, while the second was a Jeff Richards rocket from just inside the U of T blue line that eluded Varsity Blues goal-keep Jamie Bruno to the stick side.

Before the period was out, Hoar scored his second of the game. He knocked in a loose puck after a Jeff Todd wrap-around attempt, and it was 4-3 U of T after two.

With the victory, Lakehead joins York and UQTR as the OUA’s representatives at the 2003 CIS Men’s Hockey Championship, the University Cup, at the University of New Brunswick from March 20th – 23rd.