The University of Toronto’s men’s hockey team earned their seventh straight victory on Friday night as they defeated the RMC Paladins at Varsity Arena.
The Blues started off Friday night’s game with a quick pace and got a couple good shots right off the bat. The speed of the game quickly accelerated with a lot of play in both ends and few whistles blown.
It looked as though the Blues would be granted an early opportunity when two RMC players landed in the penalty box just after the six-minute mark. Although the Blues kept it in the opposing team’s end, they were unable to put it in the net due to the Paladins’ impressive penalty-kill and goaltending.
Blues forward Brent McGrail etched the first goal of the night at 10:59 into the period as he skated around the net and sent a shot through RMC goaltender, Alex Stewart’s five-hole.
The game quickly turned aggressive, and both teams sent players to the penalty box, though neither team was able to capitalize on their respective power plays as both teams’ goalies put on an impressive performance.
End-to-end hockey continued into the second period and it wasn’t until the 7:44 mark that assistant captain Eddie Snetsinger walked in from the point and put a beauty of a wrist-shot over Stewart’s left-hand glove.
The Paladins finally made a mark at 10:24 into the period when forward Matthew Pindar picked up a rebound off a shot from the point that bounced off the glass, wrapping it around to score on Blue’s goaltender Andrew Martin.
The Blues quickly responded at 12:22 into the period when Blues leading point scorer Byron Elliott scored a power-play goal with a great wrist shot from the top of the left face-off circle.
Neither team would score for the remainder of the period and the Blues led 3-1 going into the third frame.
With only 1:15 gone from the third period, forward Rob Kay scored after cutting in from the boards and opened the floodgate for a series of Blues goals. At 14:50, Elliott earned his second goal of the night and only 19 seconds later Blues forward Kyle Paige added the final Blues goal of the game.
RMC never gave up but the intensity of the game decreased slightly as the Paladin’s lost sight of a victory.
Ten minutes into the third, Blues forward Dan Brewer went to the penalty box and RMC responded by earning their second goal of the night when Landon Lavictoire scored with a shot from the point.
The Blues were far out of reach for the Paladins to end U of T’s impressive winning streak since returning to play for the second half of the season. The Blues ended the game with a 6-2 win.
Defenceman Tyler Turcotte was named player of the game and the Blues now sit tied for third place with the Carleton Ravens in the Ontario University Athletics East division.
Defenceman and alternate captain, Andrew Kizito credits the team’s recent success to having all players making an effort. “We’re getting production from everyone and were getting all lines firing,” said Kizito. “We’re forechecking hard, we’re establishing pressure and we’re playing a full 60 minutes. Before we would only play for 20 minutes, and you can’t win like that. Also, in the first half [of the season] we were getting scoring from the same guys all the time and now we’re getting scoring from everyone.”
Although the team is on an excellent streak, Kizito thinks that it is important that the players not get ahead of themselves. “[We need to] take it one game at a time,” he said. “We can’t think too far ahead as we’re just trying to secure a playoff spot right now […] It’s not over until the last game and we’ve just got to keep that in mind.”
Next home game
Jan. 29 at 7:30 p.m. at Varsity Arena vs. Queen’s Golden Gaels
