In a hard-hitting and penalty-filled affair, the Royal Military College Paladins beat the Mid East division-leading University of Toronto Varsity Blues 4-2 at Varsity Arena Friday night.
In a game that became a consistent march to the penalty box, the Blues (12-10-0-3) and Paladins (8-16-0-2) combined for 15 minors, two majors, and two game misconducts.
Going into the game, Toronto was fourth in the OUA in the man advantage, clipping along at over 20 per cent.
The Blues went 1-9 on the power play, including two five-on-three’s and the Paladins went 2-7.
Toronto had a chance to put the Paladins in the hole in the first period, but failed to convert on three consecutive power plays.
“Their goalie played pretty well,” said Blues forward Sean Fontyn. “We missed the net and tipped some pucks but, again, we didn’t get the puck to the net and it ended up costing us. We’re definitely more skilled but we had one of our worst games [tonight].”
Sometimes, you have to give the opposition kudos. A large portion of the credit goes to Paladins goalie Adam Briggs. The Wallace, Nova Scotia native was RMC’s best penalty-killer, especially during the third period when the Paladins went to the box five times, including a five-minute major for crosschecking to Richard Lim.
“[Briggs] was tremendous,” said Paladins head coach Adam Shell. “We have a young team and a short bench and sometimes we’re going to give up chances. When the guys know it’s going to take a really good play to beat him, they play and inch taller.”
The winning goal scored at 7:52 of the second period was a direct result of playing a basic hockey system.
Luke Pierce went to the net and parked himself to the right of Blues goalie Russ Brownell and jammed a rebound home short side.
“We’re most successful when we play simple,” said Shell. “And the important part of that is getting the puck to the net and having guys there.”
For the eighth time in 10 games, the Blues allowed the opposition to score first.
Just over five minutes into the first period, Paladin Jeff Oke wristed a puck Brownell on a two-on-one pass from teammate Justin Lacey seconds after the Blues killed a penalty.
“We never seem to score the first goal,” said Toronto head coach Darren Lowe. “Our first period is not usually very good. It seems we need a bad period to wake up and play better. We’re trying to find the answer to that but we can’t seem to put our finger on it.”
Toronto rookie Byron Elliott evened the score, netting his 14th goal of the year on the power play at 12:26 of the first.
Lim and Oke also scored for RMC in the second, both on the man advantage, to turn a tie game into a 4-1 visitors lead.
Six minutes after Pierce made it 3-1, the Blues thought they had closed the gap to one. The goal was disallowed because the referee lost sight of the puck.
Blues forward Paul Dupont took a five-minute major and game misconduct at 18:42 of the second after a check to the head.
RMC entered the third with a lead, for only the fourth time in 26 games.
After the Blues killed the Dupont major, Toronto cut the deficit to 4-2 when Bryden Teich scored his second of the season after parking a rebound behind Briggs.
The rest of the third, the Blues buzzed the net, rewarded with three power plays in a row, including a 36-second two-man advantage, but could not get any closer.
“At the beginning of the year we were winning a lot of games with our power play,” said Lowe. “Tonight we missed way too many opportunities and we just didn’t get it done.”
The Blues have 27 points; five ahead of second place Queen’s Golden Gaels. Toronto is 4-8 on the road and two of their three remaining games are away from home.
Brownell stopped 23 shots and took his sixth loss of the year and Briggs stopped 37 for his seventh win.
