By Kolby Marsh
The Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) Bold men’s hockey team took to the ice for the first time since the winter break and kicked things off with a 4-3 win over the Brock Badgers on Friday night at the Mattamy Athletic Centre (MAC).
The Bold saw a change in net for this one, as third-year goaltender Ryan Dugas stood in between the pipes in place of third-year netminder Kai Edmonds. With Edmonds, along with third-year forward Connor Bowie and head coach Johnny Duco off to Italy representing the Canadian national team in the International University Sports Federation (FISU) Winter World University Games.
Assistant coach Michael Fine had to resort to the team’s depth to break the rust off on home ice. With the win, this was Fine’s first ever Ontario University Athletics victory as a head coach.
“I think it’s a good look for our program,” Fine said of Bowie, Edmonds and Duco hitting the international stage. “On our end, we didn’t want to disappoint.”
The Bold did not waste any time on the offensive front to begin the game. Fourth-year forward Kevin Gursoy set up first-year forward Jordan D’Intino for a quick one-timer from the right pocket that got through fourth-year Brock goaltender Samuel Vyletelka just 52 seconds into the period. With Bowie away, D’Intino proved himself deserving of a spot in the starting lineup to get his third goal of his rookie campaign.
“It’s always nice to score on the first shift and set the tone for the rest of the game,” said D’Intino.
Although it seemed like the Bold had the early advantage, the Badgers responded just as quickly with a goal from third-year forward Jordan Stock to knot things up at one, all before the five minute mark.
After another three minutes passed, Brock continued to attack Dugas in a sizable way, as first-year forward Zack Stringer sneaked one in at the front of the net to take the 2-1 lead.
When the Bold escaped the first frame only being down one, Fine preached a strong message to the players in the locker room.
“We weren’t happy with how we were playing, but we knew that we had more in the tank, so there was no need to panic,” said Fine.
Midway through the second frame, the Badgers capitalized in the final seconds of a penalty to third-year defenseman Evan Tanos with a wrist shot from the blue line coming off the stick of second-year defenseman Jonah Boria to extend the lead to 3-1.
The power play success continued but this time for the Bold. First-year forward Tyler Savard unleashed a quick shot past Vyletelka from the high slot for his fourth of the season and to cut the Brock lead back down to one.
With Brock drawing another penalty 26 seconds before the buzzer to end the period, Fine prioritized coming out of the gates with strong energy.
“We finished off the second period pretty good,” said Fine. “For us, it was just stick to the game plan, play fast, play hard and good things will happen.”
The momentum started out in favour of the Bold, as third-year forward Will Portokalis roofed another strong wrist shot from the left side and tied the game at three as soon as the Badgers’ penalty expired.
Just as fast as one goal, in came another for TMU, once again from the power play. This time, it was Gursoy who tipped a hard slap shot into the net to collect his fifth goal of the season, giving the Bold their first lead of the night.
“It was good for us to capitalize on the power play and get a couple goals. That usually proves to be the difference maker in games like that,” said Gursoy.
Coming into this contest, second-year Bold forward Daniil Grigorev was riding a streak of points in seven straight games against Brock. He had no desire to cut that short, adding an assist on the night to reach the threshold of eight straight games.
After a long battle throughout the remainder of the third and final period, it all came down to a penalty shot for Brock with 1.7 seconds left on the clock. With the chance to tie the game, third-year forward Ryan Stepien could not earn the result he wanted as Dugas was able to stop him to secure the win, 4-3.
“We had a pretty tough schedule in the first half, so I think coming out of the gate pretty hot in the second half was definitely on our minds over the Christmas break,” Gursoy said. “To beat a division rival in our first game back was obviously huge.”
UP NEXT: The Bold have a quick turnaround to head back onto the MAC ice as they take on the Royal Military College Paladins on Jan. 10 at 3:15 p.m.
Leave a Reply