TORONTO – Despite digging themselves from a 2-0 deficit late in the third frame, the Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) Bold men's hockey team were unable to take their series opener over the University of Toronto (UofT) Varsity Blues in a gut-wrenching 3-2 defeat on Wednesday.
Aleks Dimovski and Jordan D'Intino traded goals 2:26 apart from one another to set the table on a dramatic end to Game one of the OUA semifinal.
The hope failed to withstand the final 95 seconds of regulation however, with UofT's leading scorer, Owen Robinson, finding the back of TMU's goal for a second time on Wednesday to take a 3-2 lead deep into the final period.
The visitors hung on to push the Bold to the brink of postseason elimination for the second time in three seasons, doing the same against Johnny Duco's side two years prior at the Mattamy Athletic Centre (MAC) in Game one of the OUA quarter-finals.
Though not in their favour, the history doesn't bother Duco or the Bold one bit, placing emphasis on the veteran leadership of their side to help guide the group through.
"We've got a veteran group that's been here," said Duco following the Game one loss. "We lost game one to Brock in the conference final [last year] and came back to win games two and three, so we certainly believe in our group."
"We're going to have to play a lot better and we're going to need to get some guys who we count on to contribute and play a lot better than they have so far," he added.
"If they don't, we're probably going to leave disappointed."
Robinson opened the scoring for the Varsity Blues 7:53 into the contest after beating TMU goaltender Kai Edmonds with an innocent wrist shot from well beyond fourth-years' crease.
The puck stifled the glove of Edmonds before fluttering towards the top right corner and giving UofT the early edge–an uncharacteristic bobble from the veteran goaltender that steered aside 28 shots in a shutout victory over the Lakehead Thunderwolves last weekend to secure his side a semi final berth.
The Bold had a golden opportunity to find an equalizer only minutes after falling behind, picking up a 5-on-3 man-advantage over their rivals and boasting a red-hot special teams unit that struck twice in TMU's 3-0 win on Saturday.
The group were unable to turn a profit from their power play against UofT however, failing to generate anything dangerous to pressure Rayce Ramsay into conceding a goal.
The Varsity Blues netminder didn't have much difficulty mending his position through the opening frame, with the visiting defense holding TMU to just five shots by constantly plugging bodies and sticks into the Bold's shooting lanes.
Struggling to find their offensive footing, the Bold fell further behind the eight ball in the middle frame as UofT began amplifying the offensive pressure and even striking as close as the crossbar to double their lead.
The Varsity Blues finally broke through 13:23 into the frame following a fortuitous bounce from a wayward shot attempt that trickled through TMU's crease and onto the stick of Julian Recine who made no mistake on the ricochet two feet from goal to double his team's lead.
Trailing by a pair, the Bold shortened their bench and held the lion's share of offensive chances the rest of the way. The group finally gave the Bold faithful something to cheer about late in the third, with Dimovski using a perfect deflection in tight of the Varsity Blues' goal to break TMU's scoring drought.
D'Intino parlayed his teammates fortunes with a goal of his own, riffling a shot off the inside of the right post to bring the MAC crowd to their feet. But even with the momentum in their favour, the Bold failed to carry the game to overtime and opted to leave a red-hot Robinson unattended to the left of their goal with 40 seconds remaining.
The forward took a cross-ice pass from Emmett Serenstis and slammed home his third postseason tally before celebrating the dagger in front of TMU's bench to add insult to injury on a series-opening defeat.
The Bold will head to Varsity Arena on Friday in search of a victory to keep their season alive.
"I believe in this group and trust that we'll go in Friday night and put together a full 60 minutes," commented Duco on his biggest matchup of the season. "If we do that, we feel strongly that we have a really good hockey team and we'll give ourselves a good chance."
Puckdrop is set for 7 p.m. and can be viewed on OUA.tv.
