At the midpoint of their 28-game Ontario University Athletics (OUA) regular season, the men’s hockey team sits in sixth place in the OUA West division with a 6-8-1 record, one point ahead of the Lakehead Thunderwolves and York Lions for the final OUA playoff spot.
It has been a difficult season for the men’s team, with injuries to the starting goaltenders Brett Willows and Garrett Sheehan, forcing third-string netminder Michael Nishi to start the last eleven games.
Nishi has been admirable in relief for the starting duo and is a decent OUA goaltender, but the Blues, with their trademark run-and-gun style of hockey, allow an average of 34.3 shots per game, many of them very high-quality scoring chances.
This brings us to the issue with the men’s hockey team; the club’s team defense is lackluster and this shortcoming isn’t masked by stellar goaltending as it was last year.
Veteran defenders Dylan Heide and Lane Werbowski are playing tough minutes and are solid as ever, but the team is victimized by blown 3-on-2 and defensive zone coverage too often.
Up front, the Blues have continued to score by committee, with eight players scoring at least 0.5 points per game.
Forward Tyler Liukkonen has 13 points and sniper Jeff Brown has 12, as does Heide, who has added an offensive element to his already-solid defensive game, and grinding forward Christian Finch, who has been a revelation this season.
Although broken up, last year’s all-rookie, heart-and-soul line of Dean Klomp, Casey Knight, and Russell Turner have contributed solid secondary scoring, playing on varying combinations with Clarkson University transfer Patrick Marsh and veteran two-way centre Paul Van De Velde.
Finally, the Blues’ star forward Michael Markovic, has been characteristically excellent. Markovic has nine points thus far, plays the toughest minutes, is excellent defensively, and makes his teammates better.
It’s been a difficult couple of months for the Blues fans, but despite their struggles, the men find themselves in the playoff picture at the winter break. It will likely take a playoff push reminiscent of last season’s heroic performance at Ryerson’s Mattamy Athletic Centre to keep the team’s playoff appearance streak alive, but the Blues aren’t down for the count.
The Varsity Blues women’s hockey team sits in fourth place in the OUA with a 7-3-2 record. Following last season’s 18-5-1 record and deep playoff drive, expectations were justifiably sky-high at the beginning of this season.
The goaltending and defense have been stellar, with Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) all-Canadian Nicole Kesteris as good as ever in goal, and young defenders Rebecca Bourgeois and Julia Szulewska improving an already excellent defensive core.
Szulewska made the team out of training camp and has an excellent shot, while Bourgeois is a brilliant skater and seems to get better with every game.
The concern for the women going forward will be goal scoring, as the loss of 2014 playoff heroes, sisters Alie and Courtney Brind’Amour-McClure, as well as sniper Taylor Day to injury, has hurt the team’s scoring depth and allowed for opponents to focus on shutting down the top line of Sonja Weidenfelder, Amanda Ricker and fan favourite Kristi Riseley.
Getting the defense more involved offensively will be key to compensating for the loss of the Brind’Amour-McClures, as will the play of veteran forward Jacqueline Scheffel.
The electrifying Scheffel has anchored the third line for three seasons, but will be relied upon for scoring more than she has in the past.
Goal scoring is a concern, but the team is still built for a playoff drive. Kesteris is as good a goaltender as you could hope to have, and Bourgeois and Szulewska complement a fantastic defensive core of veterans Stacey Oue, Caitlin Maikawa, and April Looije. Defense and goaltending win championships and the Varsity Blues women have both in spades.
