The Varsity Blues men’s hockey team have ended their season with an overtime loss to the Western Mustangs on Sunday night, losing 4-3. They were also stomped by the Mustangs Friday night, losing a critical game two playoff matchup at Varsity Stadium 7-3.
The Blues pulled out the first game victory earlier in the week at Thompson Arena in London, winning 3-1. The third and final game of the series was on Sunday.
The Mustangs go on to the next round and the Blues pack their bags and wait for the 2016/17 season.
The Blues upset top-seeded York Lions on February 21, defeating them 4-1 in the decisive game three, sending the Blues to their second-round playoff matchup against the Mustangs.
The Blues didn’t start the first period strong in Friday’s game, letting two early goals in off the sticks of Western forwards Ray Huether and scoring leader Andrew Goldberg. Though the Blues did respond in the first period after picking up the pace, with Blues Max Lindsay and Dean Klomp scoring and notching things back up to even.
It seems as though the Blues couldn’t find their groove in the early moments of the periods—Western capitalized early in the second period off a Cody Brown wrist shot. Shortly after, Brown scored again, increasing the Mustangs’ lead to 4-2. Brown finished off the evening with his first career OUA hat trick.
Varsity Blues rookie sensation Matt Campagna gave his team a spark by sending a wrist shot top corner over Greg Dodds’ blocker to make a close 4-3 score. The Mustangs wouldn’t give up, taking advantage of the Blues’ tired legs and notching three more goals past Blues third-year goaltender Andrew Hunt.
“Obviously, Hunt is just solid back there, he’s making so many saves, and he always pulls through when we need him to,” says Blues forward Patrick Marsh, believing in his goaltender’s abilities coming up for a do-or-die matchup on Sunday.
Both teams found penalty trouble early and often, accumulating a total of 14 infractions for a total of 28 minutes. Western has been outstanding on the power-play—they’re 5-for-18 overall and 92 percent on the penalty kill these playoffs.
The Blues finished off the regular season in eighth place, barely squeezing into that final playoff spot with a 11-15-2 record.
“We have a good team, and we believe in each other. Even though it hasn’t been a great regular season, […] I think that we can go a long way,” said Marsh prior to yesterday’s game.
Women’s hockey
There wasn’t much action happening in Waterloo on Friday night when the Varsity Blues women’s hockey team faced off against the Laurier Golden Hawks for game two of their playoff series. Scoreless throughout the entire game, the Golden Hawks managed to put one past Blues goaltender Valencia Yordanov in overtime, winning 1-0.
This series hasn’t seen a regulation finish yet. The Blues won the first one in overtime 3-2 while the Hawks took game two. Sunday night at Varsity Arena was the third, a decisive game of the series; the Blues lost 2-1 to Laurier after going into the third overtime. With that, the
