Though neither one of the University of Toronto’s hockey teams played over the holidays, star players on both the Varsity Blues men’s and women’s clubs participated in exhibition games against Canada’s national junior teams.
Seven Blues men — forwards Michael Markovic, Jeff Brown, Christian Finch, and Tyler Liukkonen; defensemen Dylan Heide and Marcus Yolevski; and goaltender Michael Nishi — formed one-third of the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) all-star team that played a two-game exhibition series against Canada’s World Junior Championship team on the weekend of December 13.
The Canadian Intercollegiate Sport (CIS) Toronto Selects (as the team was called) lost to Team Canada 10–3 and 6–0 in the two games. Despite the lopsided score lines, there were a few positives for Blues players.
Heide had a top performance with the Toronto Selects, making calm decisions and executing breakouts confidently in the face of an aggressive Team Canada forecheck.
Nishi was also solid, particularly in the second game when he allowed just two goals in a period of work, both to talented Western Hockey League sniper Jake Virtanen.
That same December weekend, star U of T women’s goaltender and CIS all-Canadian Nicole Kesteris took on Canada’s U18 Women’s National Team in Hamilton as part of an OUA all-star team.
Kesteris started the second of the two-game exhibition series, excelling in two shootouts — one following the first period and another following a five-minute overtime — to secure a 5–4 victory for the OUA team.
The Varsity Blues men resume their regular season January 4 at Varsity Arena against the Brock Badgers, while the women start back up January 9 at home against the UOIT Ridgebacks.
