Inconsistency for the Blues is like a bad penny, it keeps turning up.

In the first and third period, Toronto matched McGill in intensity, speed, and physical play. The middle stanza was their undoing in a season that ended too soon for the Blues.

The Redmen took full advantage of Toronto’s lack of focus as they scored three second-period goals en route to a 6-3 series-clinching win at Varsity Arena on Saturday night.

“We held the play for a good portion of the game but silly mistakes got the best of us,” said Blues forward Joel Lenius. “I thought we played a good 40 minutes but it’s the other 20 minutes, where we didn’t play our best, that kind of caught up to us.”

McGill had the upper hand in the battle of special teams. In game one, of the best of three, the Redmen scored three power-play goals in a 3-2 win last Wednesday night.

On Saturday, the visitors converted on two of five power plays while the Blues went scoreless in seven opportunities.

“We had a really good year as far as penalty-killing went,” said Toronto head coach Darren Lowe. “When you get to this part of the season, it’s special teams that win and lose games for you and unfortunately, we didn’t do as good a job on our penalty-killing or our power play […] and that’s the difference in the hockey game.”

The winning goal came on the power play at 6:50 of the second period when Eric L’Italien jammed a rebound through the legs of Blues goalie Russ Brownell.

The Redmen opened the scoring at 3:41 of the first period when Andrew Wright beat Brownell with a wrist shot that hit the right post and went in.

Blues rookie Byron Elliot had a chance to tie the game three minutes later. He intercepted a McGill pass in the slot but couldn’t finish.

The Redmen made it 2-0 at 12:43 when Guillaume Doucet found himself alone in the goal crease. A pass squeaked between Brownell’s legs and the right post as Doucet tapped the puck into the empty net.

Toronto responded with desperation, as Elliot scored a much-needed goal at 14:32 to cut the lead to 2-1.

Andre Picard-Hooper and Marko Kovacevic also scored for the Redmen in the middle stanza.

Brownell allowed three goals on nine shots, as Lowe yanked him at the end of the second in favour of Andrew Martin.

“I’m sure [Brownell] might have been a little tense coming home down a game,” Lowe said. “Sometimes it just doesn’t go your way […] I can’t say enough about the way he played for us this year. He was fabulous.”

Goals by Sean Fontyn, in the last minute of the second and Claudio Cowdrey, early in the third made the score 5-3.

The Blues thought they narrowed the game to 5-4 with 15 minutes remaining when the puck appeared to cross the line, but the referee waived it off.

“For sure the puck was in the net,” Lenius said. “The puck bounced off the goalie’s glove and I pushed it in over the line.”

The Blues pressed the issue, but McGill goalie Kevin Desfosses made some big saves, including a right leg stop on a breakaway for Toronto forward Joe Rand with 1:40 left in the third.

“[Desfosses] joined us at Christmas time and he has given us some stability in the net,” said McGill head coach Martin Raymond. “Having him down the stretch has helped as we keep going [to the next round].” Desfosses stopped 23 for the win.

The Blues pulled their goalie with 1:29 remaining, but it was too little too late.

Vincent Lambert iced the game with an empty netter.

“The guys really battled hard in the third period,” Brownell said. “Our guys never quit. That’s one thing that characterizes our team: the guys never give up.”