By Sebastian Zucchet
The Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) Bold men’s hockey team got their revenge in a 5-2 defeat over the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR) Patriotes at the Mattamy Athletic Centre (MAC) on Saturday night.
This bout was the first competitive rematch since the Patriotes beat the Bold in the Queen’s Cup final 3-2 in double overtime last season.
The team had this match marked down on their calendars as they sought revenge for last year’s match, with bad memories of the final still in the back of the players’ heads. Especially for fourth-year forward Kevin Gursoy.
“Those guys beat us in our own rink last year in the Queen’s Cup final, so definitely a bad taste in our mouth,” he said. “ I don’t think we’ve beat them since I’ve been here so to get that win today was definitely a big one.”
The first period started off quite even, with each team winning their share of puck battles and creating chances. TMU started to dominate the game a bit more through the middle of the period but as the minutes counted down, UQTR started to grow into the game and create more offence.
The momentum swung in the first period when third-year forward Will Portokalis took a tripping penalty which sent the Patriotes on the powerplay. The best chance of the first came from the Patriotes captain, third-year centre Conor Frenette, but Bold third-year goaltender Kai Edmonds made himself big and stopped the shot.
The Bold came out flying in the second period and took it to their Quebecois rivals.
As the period progressed, the game became more chippy. Just over seven minutes into the period, UQTR first-year defender Olivier Boutin laid a crushing hit to the head on Gursoy against the boards, which led to a ten-player scrum. Six different players ended up in the penalty box, with Boutin receiving a two-minute penalty and ten-minute misconduct for his actions. Third-year Bold forward Ian Martin also received a ten-minute misconduct for his role in retaliating.
After all the penalties were sorted, the Bold were granted a five-on-three powerplay. The Bold made quick work of the man advantage as Gursoy received a pass across the point from third-year defenceman Jaden Condotta and ripped a one-timer home to take the lead.
Twenty-nine seconds later, with Boutin’s penalty still on the clock, second-year forward Daniil Grigorev drove down the wing and slid a pass across the top of the goal crease, finding Gursoy again. The Bold veteran slid it under the pads of third-year Patriotes goalie William Grimard to double the Bold’s lead.
After a struggle on the power play on Friday night, it was evident that the Bold had improved their special teams ahead of Saturday’s game, which head coach Johnny Duco was pleased about.
“The biggest difference in the second period was our powerplay and we were able to execute the powerplay really well tonight,” said Duco.
Despite the momentum in their favour, the Bold lead did not stay at two for long. Against the run of play, UQTR came down the ice and Frenette slotted home his tenth goal of the season off a great passing play by the UQTR top line to cut the Bold’s advantage to one. The Patriotes captain leads Ontario University Athletics with 11 goals in 11 games after Saturday.
The Bold got their lead back to where they wanted it only three-and-a-half minutes later. With about five minutes left in the period, UQTR goalie Grimard lost control of the puck and it landed on the stick of first-year Bold forward Jordan D’Intino’s stick, who put it into the open cage to restore the two-goal lead.
As the third period got underway, it was the Patriotes’ turn to bring the heat and momentum. They started the period strong and tested Edmonds but were not able to find a way past the Bold shot-stopper. UQTR came close when a goalmouth scramble led to a shot for Frenette coming off the post. Duco commented on Edmonds’ performance and how important he is to the team.
“He’s obviously the backbone of our team and when he’s playing like that at that level, we feel we can compete with anybody,” said Duco.
Edmonds was also pleased with the team’s play in front of him.
“I thought we did a really good job [in] the first two periods to kind of limit their chances…I thought we were doing a good job of controlling our defensive zone coverage,” said Edmonds.
As the minutes ran down in the third, the Patriotes pulled the goalie in hopes of getting some goals back but the result was the opposite. First-year forward Tyler Savard picked off a puck in the neutral zone and laced the puck into the empty net to make it 4-1.
There was no quit in UQTR though, as Frenette put home his second of the night to add some life to his team as they continued to hit the Bold hard and fire pucks toward Edmonds.
With momentum building, the Patriotes tried their luck by pulling the goalie again, only for fourth-year forward Jackson Doherty to score another empty net goal to ice the game.
The Bold came up with a solid performance in a big part of the season to produce a crucial win.
“We’re a pretty tough team to play against because we come at you with waves of pressure. We don’t rely on just a few players to carry the load and do the heavy lifting. It really sets us up for success when you can count on the whole roster,” said Duco.
With the win, the Bold have won four out of their last five games to improve their record to 7-7. The Patriotes fall to 8-5, sitting in fourth place in the OUA East.
UP NEXT: The Bold host the Western Mustangs, the current first-place team in the OUA West standings, at the MAC on Wednesday, Nov. 20. Puck-drop is set at 6:15 p.m.
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