The TMU Bold watched their semi-final deficit continuously grow against the top-seeded UNB REDS on Saturday in a 7-0 beatdown against last year's national champions.
Colton Krammerer picked up Player of The Game honours after leading his team to a second-straight appearance in the national final, picking up a goal and two assists in the blowout win.
Brady Gilmour contributed an assist on four of UNB's seven goals on Saturday while Samuel Richard blanked the limited TMU attack in goal.
The Bold were outshot 48-22 in their goal-less effort.
"Unfortunately in hockey sometimes you just don't have it and tonight we didn't have it," said Head Coach of the Bold Johnny Duco following his side's elimination from championship contention.
The Bold quickly learned their chances at containing the undefeated REDS, let alone at stopping the maritime side, would be a difficult mountain to climb less than seven minutes into Saturday's semi-final after quickly falling behind 2-0.
Sean McGurn and Kale McCallum lit the lamp for the REDS less than two minutes apart from one another before Kammerer added a third tally for UNB in the final minutes of the first.
In a similar effort to the Badgers' struggles against UNB on Thursday, the Bold underwent long spells without testing the REDS' goal in the first and entered the break with the same amount of shots as their opponent had goals.
"I think we had a really poor level of execution," mentioned Duco in response to the lack of scoring chances generated from his group on Saturday.
TMU appeared to correct some of their mistakes coming out of the first intermission, creating scoring chances, limiting turnovers, and getting their star players more familiar with UNB's crease.
The Bold's brief uptick in momentum would be exactly that however, as the REDS added a fourth goal to their total just 2:12 into the second.
Positioned well in front of the Bold's cage, UNB's Austen Keating batted down a point shot from Gilmour to secure his first point of the tournament and further bury the morale of the home side.
The third-year added an assist to his afternoon total six minutes later to catapult the REDS to an insurmountable 5-0 lead and land the first of many daggers into TMU's championship hopes.
UNB's Camaryn Baber and Jason Williams emphatically brought an end to the REDS' scoring surge in the third, the former splitting the Bold's defense just 38-seconds into the final frame.
"[UNB's] got four first lines, two starting goalies and six [defenders] that would be arguably the best on every team in our conference," said Duco after his team's pummeling loss.
"It's a challenge when you put yourself in an [early] hole like that," added Captain Chris Playfair.
Unlike their quarter-final win over Calgary on Thursday, depth and undisciplined behavior couldn't carry the Bold further towards claiming an elusive national championship for the program.
Kyle Bollers, Daniil Grigorev and Kevin Gursoy - TMU's three leading point-getters throughout the regular season - failed to take over, or even dictate, the offensive pace for the Bold in the defeat, each extending their point-less streaks to three games.
The Bold will play their final game of the season on Sunday against UQTR or McGill in search of a podium finish on the nation's biggest stage.
Duco and the rest of the Bold are looking forward to coming through on an opportunity to have only arrived once in the team's long history, that being in 2021 during a overtime defeat to St.FX.
"We have another opportunity to come together, finish on a high and get our first national medal in program history."
Puckdrop for the bronze medal game of the National Championship is set for 11:00 a.m.
