Moment of truth: Bold playoff push begins with battle against Blues

TORONTO - For the second time in four seasons, the Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) Bold men's hockey team will face off against the Toronto Varsity Blues in the first round of the OUA playoffs.

The blue and gold are coming off a 32-point season and finished in fourth place in the OUA West division. Meanwhile, the Blues ended the year one point back of the Bold for a fifth-place finish themselves.

TMU took the season series between the two sides with 6-1 and 2-1 wins, respectively — both coming in October — before Toronto secured a 3-2 victory in the Bold's last home game of the regular season.

"I expect it to be a tight, hard-fought battle," said Bold head coach Johnny Duco. "It's two really good hockey teams that know each other really well."

"We're going to come together as a team here and buy into the system," said Bold defenceman, Ryan Wells.

The two Toronto sides faced off in the opening round of the 2018-19 playoffs where the blue and gold came out with a 2-0 series victory over their crosstown rivals before being eliminated in the following round by the Guelph Gryphons.

A key factor within this year's matchup will be the special teams battle. The Bold are coming in with the top-ranked shorthanded unit in the OUA — killing penalties at a 91.1 per cent clip. They also featured the sixth-ranked power play at 20.8 per cent. For the season, TMU averaged better statistics in these categories compared to the Blues who — in their special team units — were ranked fifth and eleventh accordingly.

"You always look at [the game] in four or five different buckets and special teams is one of them. If you check off that bucket, you put yourself in a great position to win hockey games," said Duco. "We saw that last year in the biggest game in program history when we beat the [University of New Brunswick] at Nationals. We won the special team battle. I think our penalty kill went four-for-four and our power play went one-for-two. We ended up winning a 2-1 hockey game."

"They're a small, quick team. So, for us, just keeping them to the outside, playing with our strengths, defending them well and [we] can build off our defence to bring offence. As long as we shut them down, we can work around them at all times," added Bold defenceman Evan Brand.

TMU also has a wide array of offensive talent at their disposal, which could be threatening for the Blues if they gain traction early in the series. Kevin Gursoy and Jesse Barwell both put up over 20 points this season, while Connor Bowie added 10 goals to his name as well. Those three alongside the likes of their other available top scorers such as Patrick Fellows and Chris Playfair plus defencemen Elijah Roberts, Zachary Shankar, and Wells can be dangerous at different times.

On the other side, the Blues have their skilled talent as well. Notable names for them include top-point scorer Owen Guy, as well as Cole Purboo, Owen Robinson and Ross Kreiger. In the most recent matchup between the two sides, Guy and Kreiger scored two pivotal markers in Toronto's 3-2 win.

"They have certain guys who are top forwards, but we have our game plan to shut them down," Brand said. "We're just focusing on what we have to do to get the job done and everything will roll into place after that."

"To be honest, I'm not really worried about those guys. I'm worried about our team and how we're going to win and not worried about shutting anyone down because we're all capable of doing it," said Wells.

The battle between the crease expects to be intriguing as well with Kai Edmonds and Jett Alexander taking the mantle for the Bold and the Blues respectively. Both netminders were at the top of their game this season as Edmonds finished with a 0.932 save percentage — second-highest in the OUA — compared to Alexander's 0.927 save percentage — fifth-highest in the OUA.

"Their goalie has had a good stretch of games here. So, we need to figure out how we're going to get pucks and bodies to the net and throw everything out there," said Wells.

For the Bold, the playoffs seem to have come at the perfect time as many key players are returning to health. Defenceman Aaron Hyman reentered the lineup in their final regular season game against the Waterloo Warriors after being out with an injury since the holiday break.

"[He's] a difference maker for us when he's in the lineup," said Duco on Hyman's awaited return. "We maybe could have rushed [him] back a little quicker, but we wanted to do it the right way and make sure when he came back he was ready to, hopefully, go on a long playoff run."

In addition to Hyman, forward Daniel D'Amico also returned from injury against Waterloo after missing two games himself, while defenceman Liam Ross came back the week prior as he was held out for six games with an injury as well.

"That's what you want to do. It's kind of like Humpty Dumpty putting it all back together again to a certain extent," Duco added.

"We're so deep as a team that we have so many guys that can come in and out of the lineup and make an impact right away," said Brand. "So, for them to be healthy again is going to be great for us going down the stretch."

However, one notable name that will not be available in this series for TMU is Kyle Bollers. TMU's top point-getter went down with an injury at the 2023 FISU World University Games and has been held out of the lineup ever since reporting back to the team. His status is currently week-to-week.

"We're just hoping that we can play long enough that we eventually get him back," said Duco.

In the final stretch of the season, the Bold faced some struggles as they only won three of the last nine games to close out the year. Nonetheless, in their most recent matchup against Waterloo, they came away with a 5-0 win with the goals coming from five different scorers.

"We made a strong effort to be organized and to treat that game, even though it didn't matter, of great importance," said Duco. "Great to get that winning feeling back after what was a little bit of a tough stretch."

With the win, the Bold found some much-needed rejuvenation just in time for the postseason.

"It was so important for us to just get that morale back within the group," said Brand.

"Facing adversity late in the season, sometimes you look at it as a positive. We know what it's like to lose, we know how much it sucks. We wanted to go into the playoffs on a winning note and we did that, so just another step in the right direction for our group," added Wells.

After making a deep postseason run last year, the core group of the Bold knows what it feels like to go far in the playoffs and have a taste of a national championship tournament.

"Building off last year, we know what it takes to get to that level. We know what we have to do as a group to get back down to Nationals," said Wells. "It's a battle. It's long. It's like another season pretty much. So, coming together, working together, fighting together, it tastes even better in the end."

"For me as a first-year, it's exciting," said Brand. "We have a veteran core mixed in with a nice young core that we have the experience and the jump and the fire in us to be excited about these playoffs."

Ever since the Bold were defeated at the hands of the St. Francis Xavier X-Men in the bronze medal game at last year's national championship, they have been waiting to return to this point as they set their sights on reaching the tournament once again.

"That's what we all prepare for. Train all summer, battle all year. We wake up early in the morning to come to practice. It's all to get to the playoffs and now it's a clean slate. Everything we've done all regular season, what we did last year, none of it matters. The best team usually rises," said Duco.

"It's exciting. You come to the rink every day, the boys are all in a good mood. You come to the rink on a game day and everyone is kind of loose. Then, we dial it in," said Wells.

Yet, in order to reach that point, the road begins against the Blues.

The OUA returns to a best-of-three series format this season as they no longer face the restrictions of COVID-19. Due to the Bold's better record this season compared to the Blues, they earned home-ice advantage in the opening round.

Game one of the series is set for 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, followed by game two at Varsity Arena at 5:00 p.m. on Saturday. The series will return to the Mattamy Athletic Centre for a decisive game three, if necessary, at 4:00 p.m on Sunday.

"We're going to need everybody. We can't have 10-to-11 guys going. We need all 18 skaters and [Edmonds] to be sharp. We're going to need the special teams to be sharp. We're going to need to capitalize on our scoring chances. We're going to have to be tough. We're going to have to be disciplined. All those things are going to be factors," said Duco.

"If we execute, I like our chances."

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Players Mentioned

#2 Aaron Hyman: D; 6' 5"; 3

#10 Patrick Fellows: F; 6' 3"; 4

#11 Ryan Wells: D; 5' 10"; 2

#13 Zachary Shankar: D; 6' 0"; 4

#14 Chris Playfair: F; 6' 1"; 2

#18 Kevin Gursoy: F; 5' 11"; 2

#20 Evan Brand: D; 6' 7"; 1

#21 Jesse Barwell: F; 5' 11"; 4

#23 Elijah Roberts: D; 5' 10"; 2

#33 Kai Edmonds: G; 6' 3"; 1

Players Mentioned

#2 Aaron Hyman
: 6' 5"; 3
: D

#10 Patrick Fellows
: 6' 3"; 4
: F

#11 Ryan Wells
: 5' 10"; 2
: D

#13 Zachary Shankar
: 6' 0"; 4
: D

#14 Chris Playfair
: 6' 1"; 2
: F

#18 Kevin Gursoy
: 5' 11"; 2
: F

#20 Evan Brand
: 6' 7"; 1
: D

#21 Jesse Barwell
: 5' 11"; 4
: F

#23 Elijah Roberts
: 5' 10"; 2
: D

#33 Kai Edmonds
: 6' 3"; 1
: G