The Toronto Golden Jets senior men’s Gold team dropped both games on Day 1 of the second weekend of play in the NCL at Markham’s Pan Am pool.
Toronto was without five of its seven starters for both games with three having work commitments, one playing in an international tournament and one injured.
In the first game, the Jets faced Montreal CHAOS with only one substitute. Toronto fell behing 3-2 in the opening quarter but bounced back with a 3-1 second quarter to take a 5-4 lead at the half.
The teams traded a pair of goals in the third period leaving the Jets up by one entering the fourth. After moving ahead by two goals, fatigue caught up to the players and the visitors were able to claw back to a 8-8 tie in regulation.
Even with goalie Barbod Rouzbahani stopping the first shootout penalty shot, the Jets missed twice and fell 12-10. Toronto also missed two penalty shots in regulation time.
Richard Laurie, Alex Leblanc and Filip Resanovic each scored twice in regulation with singles going to Adam Mekni and Sam Madadian.
With only two hours of rest and the addition of only one more player, the Jets were still able to put up a decent first half effort against the powerful Ottawa Waterwalkers. Then things went off the rails and the visitors pulled away to a 19-11 victory.
Resanovic led the way with four goals. Leblanc again scored twice and was joined by Madadian. Cam Hexter and Laurie added singles.
After winning the first league weekend in January, the Jets Gold team will drop into the consolation round and face Jets Navy and Hamilton 2 on Saturday.