By Dexter LeRuez
Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) Bold men’s hockey captain Jesse Barwell held back tears on Sunday night, as he struggled to find the right words following his squad’s early elimination from the Ontario University Athletics Queen’s Cup Playoffs.
Sunday’s 5-3 loss in a must-win Game 3 against the University of Toronto (U of T) Varsity Blues marked the end of the team’s season and finale of the fifth-year senior’s collegiate hockey career.
“Sad way to finish my career,” said Barwell. “Just been in there reflecting with some of the fifth-year guys about five amazing years of my life.”
For a season that started so brightly for the Bold—winning 11 of 16 games in the fall semester—it ended with a thud. TMU won just five of their final 11 games en route to a first round exit.
“[It’s] a tale of two hockey teams,” said Bold head coach Johnny Duco. “We were fantastic in the first half. Thought we had good team morale, we had good practices, we had good work ethic. In the second semester I felt we took our foot off the gas.”
The Bold’s first round series as a whole could be seen as the culmination of their woes during the back half of the season.
In Game 1 and Game 2 the Bold’s offence went quiet, only logging a single entry into the scoring column in each game and being snakebitten on the power play.
But a singular goal was enough on Feb. 18, as the Bold forced a decisive Game 3 back at the Mattamy Athletic Centre (MAC) after holding U of T scoreless on their home ice.
And for most of Sunday’s contest, it seemed as if the Bold may have held out long enough to show off their first-half form. Barwell knocked down his first goal of the playoffs—a mere 33 seconds after the puck drop.
“I saw top shelf,” said Barwell. “And I was like, just shoot it, get it in there and thankfully it got it.”
Twenty-one seconds after Barwell’s goal, defenceman Aaron Hyman was sent to the box for tripping.
It wouldn’t be the last time the Bold were on the penalty kill either. In the six minutes following Hyman’s penalty, Bold players were booked for two more infractions, including a ten-minute misconduct for head contact by fourth-year Zachary Shankar.
“He made contact with the guy’s head,” said Duco. “So it’s, a two [minute penalty] and a ten [minute misconduct]. I didn’t have a problem with that [call].”
However, Duco was critical of the officiating in the Bold’s loss. He disagreed with a boarding call against forward Connor Bowie in the first period.
“The Bowie one is a body check and Hyman gets tripped and then gets a tripping penalty one second later,” said Duco. “And you got a ref like [Josh] Schein…He’s got an issue with us, he’s got a problem with us and he’s continuously, when we’ve had him, done this to us.”
A few minutes after the Bold killed off their penalties, U of T’s Ben Woodhouse capitalized on TMU’s tired legs, evening the game up before TMU struck once more at the end of the frame to regain the lead.
TMU’s luck faltered once more in the second period, in just five minutes the Bold went from leading 2-1 to being behind by a score as the Varsity Blues took a 3-2 lead.
U of T’s third goal was their most controversial, as the officials missed a Varsity Blues player’s stick poking Shankar in the eye just seconds before the puck went in the net.
Despite the Bold’s issues with officiating, they struck late in the frame. Second-year Ryan Wells scored from the blue line to even the game going into the third and final period.
However, chaos ensued heading into the intermission. A skirmish after the buzzer led to TMU defenceman Kevin Gursoy starting out the third period in the penalty box.
Additionally, the ice surface was not dried properly after the Zamboni flooded the ice, causing a stoppage approximately three minutes into the final period where players from both teams skated laps in order to disperse the excess water.
But finally, when the chaos subsided, all that was left was 17 minutes to decide both team’s fate.
Despite the difficult latter half of the season, poor officiating and the Bold missing their leading scorer in Kyle Bollers due to injury, TMU still had a chance to keep its season alive.
When the puck dropped to restart the game both teams immediately began to throw hypothetical haymakers, as they took turns going on the attack looking to land the finishing blow.
After thirteen gruelling minutes of action, the Bold dropped their guard, allowing Woodhouse to capitalize once more and putting TMU behind a 4-3 deficit.
The Bold fought to get back to even footing and score one more goal in order to settle the series in overtime, but it was too little too late. The Varsity Blues scored an empty-netter to put the nail in the coffin of the Bold’s 2022-23 season
“It felt like how every game has the last couple of weeks,” said Duco. “We make crucial mistakes at crucial times and like I said at the beginning, we probably got the result we deserved.”
From here it isn’t clear where the Bold will go. However, Duco seems ready to make changes in order for next season to be different.
“We need to get better,” said Duco. “And if that means replacing people then that’s what it means. We need to improve this hockey team because we weren’t good enough.”
Despite the uncertainty in the Bold camp heading into next season, there’s one thing that is certain about the 2023-24 campaign. TMU will host the U Sports Men’s Hockey National Championship, granting the program an automatic berth into the tournament.
And when Duco wrapped up his last post-game media availability of the season he had four words to describe the goal for the TMU Bold men’s hockey team heading into the next campaign:
“Win a national championship.”
UP NEXT: The Bold head into the off-season after an early playoff exit. But when they regroup, all eyes will be on their pursuit of winning a national title on home ice.
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