TORONTO — The Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) Bold men's hockey team defeated the Guelph Gryphons 6-1, moving into first place in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) Western conference standings.

"This is one of our best games of the season from start to finish," said Marko Djordjevic. "We usually had tough starts at home, but our first 20 minutes set the pace for the game."

The Bold took the lead early in the first period. Two and a half minutes in, a misplay behind the net by Guelph goaltender Olivier Ciarlo resulted in the puck being taken by Chase Lefebvre, who wrapped around the net, sending it in before Ciarlo could recover.

The Bold kept the early momentum going, taking quality shots on net and finding their second goal of the night later in the period.

Collecting the puck off the rebound, Gavin Grudner got into position to send a pass to the slot, where he fed an awaiting Daniil Grigorev, who sniped one in for a clean finish.

The period ended with the Bold up 2-0.

The Bold maintained control throughout the middle frame. In the last 10 minutes of the period, TMU found the back of the net once again, with Slava Melikov — returning from a hand injury — setting up Spencer Shugrue.

A called-back goal call against Connor Bowie didn't slow them down as less than a minute later, Marko Djordjevic jammed the puck in off a pass from Will Portakalis to bring the score to 4-0.

Portakalis leads the OUA offensively with 23 points and ranks third in both goals (9) and assists (14).

Before the end of the second, in the final moments, the Gryphons were able to sneak one past Kai Edmonds to trim the deficit to  4-1. 

In the final period, the Bold continued to play well defensively and not let  Guelph find the back of the net again. 

With four minutes left in the period, Joseph Ianniello — assisted by Hunter Donohoe and Chase Lefebvre — rifled in a shot from the top of the right circle, with the puck hitting the crossbar and the puck deflecting down and into the net.

The game ended 5-1 in favour of the Bold, helping them improve their home record to 3-5-0 and extend their win streak to five games.

The Bold are shaping up to be quite the offensive powerhouse as they outshot the Gryphons, 40-18.

On the defensive side TMU continues to stay strong. In their last three games Edmonds has allowed only three goals past him, while the Bold have scored 15 goals against their competitors, demonstrating an all around strong team.

"Defensively we were really sharp," said Duco. "We made hard plays under pressure and we wanted the puck often. Your best defence is having the puck and playing offence and i thought we did a good job of that tonight"

The Bold look to end on a high in their final game before the winter break.

"Winning is fun," said Donohoe. "We want to win. So our expectation here is for us to win."

With previously injured players returning and settling in, the Bold are hitting their stride.

"We are starting to see that with a healthy team that is starting to gel and grow together you're starting to see the chemistry and the added level of competitiveness where these guys want to win, they want to have success, they want to get back to building what we know we can build," said head coach Johnny Duco.

Up next, the Bold will face the Waterloo Warriors on Saturday, Nov. 28 at 2:15 p.m. Fans can attend the game for free with their OneCard.