By Dexter LeRuez
The Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) Bold men’s hockey team launched a comeback against the University of Guelph Gryphons to win 4-3 on Wednesday at the Mattamy Athletic Centre (MAC).
Heading into the third period, the Bold were down 3-0. Ryan Wells scored the game-winner 55 seconds into overtime to push the Bold to a 4-1 record this season.
This TMU team remembers the playoffs last season when they beat Western University Mustangs 5-4 in double-overtime and the University of Waterloo Warriors 4-3 in overtime in back-to-back games.
“[We have] a lot of guys who went through the same thing down 3-0 to Western in the playoffs,” said Wells. “We try to remember those games when we come in the third period and we try and remember and talk about how we’ve been there before.”
Although Wells was the hero on Wednesday night, the Bold wouldn’t have made it to overtime without the goals scored in the third period to tie things up.
Kevin Gursoy opened up the scoring two minutes into the third period, followed by team captain Jesse Barwell and finally Elijah Roberts, who knotted the game up hardly eleven minutes into the frame.
Bold head coach Johnny Duco said second-year forward Chris Playfair was the catalyst for the comeback Wednesday night.
“I highlighted the game Chris Playfair was having,” said Duco. “Chris went out in the first shift and set the tone like he had in the first forty minutes and the guys followed him.”
Duco felt that it wasn’t a matter of effort in the first two periods, but rather execution.
“I didn’t hate our effort,” he said. “I thought we were working hard, but we just weren’t working smart and we weren’t executing our gameplan.”
The win is crucial for the Bold, who were on the losing end of an upset against the Waterloo Warriors last Saturday, Oct. 22. If the third period didn’t shape out the way it did, TMU would’ve lost two straight games at home heading into a three-game road trip.
The Bold will look to get revenge against a Brock Badgers side who stifled TMU’s chances at a provincial finals appearance last spring.
Roberts said heading into Saturday’s rematch against Brock is a chance to right past wrongs.
“I think going into Brock playing the right way, playing hard, playing physical, kinda sending a message to them that we are no joke,” he said. “For us, it’s a little bit of redemption to kinda stick it to them.”
UP NEXT: The Bold head to Thorold, Ont., to face off against the Brock Badgers on Saturday. Puck-drop is set for 4 p.m.
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