Box Score
Toronto, ON – The University of Guelph men's hockey team lost 8-3 to the Toronto Varsity Blues Wednesday night in Game 1 of the OUA West Division semi-final.  Game 2 of the best-of-three series will be played on Saturday (Feb. 21) at 2pm at the Gryphon Centre.  Toronto forward Michael Markovic finished with three goals and one assist.  Carlos Amestoy and Robert De Fulviis each had a goal and an assist in the loss.

For a second straight playoff series, the Gryphons have started off by being on the wrong end of a five-goal game (in the opening round against the Waterloo Warriors, the Gryphons lost 5-0 in Game 1 before going on to win the series in three games).  Wednesday night at Varsity Arena, the Blues were able to open the scoring just over a minute into the game to take an early 1-0 lead. Guelph was able to strike back on the power play, as the team's leading scorer Nick Huard (North Bay, ON) would tie the game at 1-1 with a power play goal. Before the end of the opening period however, the Varsity Blues would score two more goals to lead 3-1 after 20 minutes.

The Gryphons, who out-shot the Varsity Blues 41-32 on the night, would score the first goal of the second period as Carlos Amestoy (Toronto, ON) would find the back of the net to make it a one goal game. However, Toronto's Michael Markovic would score his second power play goal of the night to give the Varsity Blues a 4-2 lead heading to the third period.  The final 20 minutes of the game would be filled with plenty of goals and plenty of penalties.  Unfortunately for the Gryphons, the majority of the goals belonged to U of T while the penalty minutes belonged to the Gryphs.

Toronto's fourth year forward Jeff Brown would score twice in the third period, once even strength, then again on the power play, to extend the Varsity Blues' lead to 6-2. Mid-way through the period, Robert De Fulviis would get one back for the Gryphons to make it a 6-3 game, but the goals just kept on coming for the Blues.  After Markovic completed his hat-trick to make it a 7-3 game, Casey Knight would cap the scoring with U of T's eighth goal of the night, coming with just under two minutes remaining.  Not lost in all of the goal scoring was the mutual dislike for one another that was evident throughout the game.  Chippy play was the theme of the night, with both teams taking healthy runs at one another and engaging in some extracurricular activities before and after the whistles.  In all, 60 minutes of penalties were dished out, 36 of which were handed to the Gryphons. Three separate 10-minute misconducts were handed out (two to De Fulviis); two spearing penalties; two cross-checking; one boarding.  In other words, expect some bad blood on Saturday afternoon when these two meet for Game 2 of the series.