AROUND OUA: Pilon's highlight reel goal holds up as game-winner over rival Golden Hawks
KINGSTON, Ont. (January 23, 2016)- The Queen's Gaels women's hockey team snapped its three-game losing streak on Saturday evening at the Memorial Centre, using three first period goals, two of which came on the power-play, to defeat the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks 5-2.
SCOREBOARD
Pilon's highlight reel goal holds up as game-winner over rival Golden Hawks
KINGSTON, Ont. (January 23, 2016)- The Queen's Gaels women's hockey team snapped its three-game losing streak on Saturday evening at the Memorial Centre, using three first period goals, two of which came on the power-play, to defeat the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks 5-2.
GAME FLOW
It was the visitors who struck first early in the opening period, as Jessica Prevette picked up a loose puck behind the Gaels net and did a quick wrap-around before Caitlyn Lahonen (Saskatoon, Sask.) could get her pad to the post, putting the Golden Hawks up 1-0. Unfortunately for the visitors, the marker seemed to spark a Queen's offence that had been somewhat dormant of late after notching just four goals in as many games coming into Saturday's contest.
The women nearly equaled that total, scoring three goals in the opening twenty minutes of the game. It was the second time that the Gaels had tallied three markers in one period of play, and the scoring began with a wrist-shot goal by Kyla Crouse (Mount Brydges, Ont.), who picked up the puck along the half-boards to the right of netminder Lauren Webber. The third-year forward ripped the shot past Webber for her third goal of the season to tie the game at 1-1 less than five minutes into the first.
The Gaels power-play found its stride soon after, as Katrina Manoukarakis jumped on the puck after a hard, low slap-shot from Mary Coughlin (Amherstburg, Ont.) produced a juicy rebound off the pads of Webber. The Scarborough, Ont. native buried her seventh of the year to give the home side its first lead of the game.
Queen's made the Golden Hawks pay for another penalty just minutes later, as a great passing play down low in the face-off circle that saw three Gaels touch the puck ended with the disc on the blade of Taryn Pilon (Peterborough, Ont.), who deked out Webber for her fifth to double the Gael lead. Manoukarakis and Courtenay Jacklin (Regina, Sask.) picked up assists on the ticolour's second power-play marker of the period, which was one more than Queen's had in 16 attempts over the previous four games.
The Gael tide continued throughout much of the second period, and the women had outshot the visitors 27-16 after two periods of play. Amanda Smith shut the door for the first 19 minutes of the middle stanza after coming in relief of Webber, and her play initially paid off as Katia Piccoli picked up a loose puck that took a strange bounce off Lahonen and tucked it inside the left post to cut the deficit down to a goal at the 18:25 mark.
The hosts responded just over a minute later, however, as Micaela Smith (Cobourg, Ont.) zipped a low shot through Smith's five-hole from inside the left point to restore the two goal advantage heading into the final period of play.
The Golden Hawks couldn't muster a significant comeback bid in the final 10 minutes, and when they did put together a scoring chance, Lahonen was up to the task, stopping 24 of 26 shots to earn her 10th win of the season.
The Gaels (9-1-4-2) pick up their ninth win of the season, while Laurier (7-1-7-2) dips back down to the .500 mark.
FINAL SAY
"I give a lot of credit to our veterans," said Head Coach Matt Holmberg. "They all stepped up in many ways to help the team to victory tonight. Getting a couple of power-play goals in the first period was also very important. That was the big difference between last night and tonight, getting our power-play going. We'll have a good week of practice in preparation for Guelph next weekend. We also have our senior night next weekend so there will be a lot of emotion and energy already. So we are looking forward to testing ourselves against the best in the country."
BY THE NUMBERS
5- The Gaels scored 5 goals on Saturday, matching their highest single-game goal total of the regular season
3- Taryn Pilon tallied her third game-winning goal of the season, a team-high
13- The Gaels have allowed two goals or less in 13 regular season games
UP NEXT
The Gaels finish their homestand next weekend when they welcome the CIS No. 1 ranked Guelph Gryphons and UOIT Ridgebacks to the Memorial Centre on Saturday and Sunday respectively.
Source: Queen's Gaels
Rams give No. 1 Guelph all they can handle
TORONTO - On paper, it looked like quite the mismatch Saturday afternoon between the Ryerson Rams and the No. 1 Guelph Gryphons at the Mattamy Athletic Centre.
BOXSCORE
The Gryphons came in riding a four game win streak and comfortably sat first in the OUA standings. The Rams were coming off a 5-1 loss to the York Lions the night before but didn't let any of those things impact their performance. They stayed with the Gryphons for the majority of the game. Yet, in the end, Guelph escaped with a 5-2 victory.
"Performance wise, I think we gave them a pretty good run," said Ryerson's head coach Lisa Haley following one of her team's strongest outings in recent memory. "They're the number one team in the country for a reason and for us it was about putting a proud performance on the ice and we tried to play all 60 minutes. I think we kept it as close as we could for as long as we could…"
The Gryphons took advantage of a slow start by the Rams in the first period. Averi Nooren ripped a shot off the crossbar and down into the net just 39 seconds into the game. Her 11th of the season put Guelph up 1-0 early.
It would stay that way until 36 seconds into the second period when the Gryphons' Jessica Pellegrino misplayed a puck at centre ice. Ryerson's Alyssa Connolly (Mount Albert, Ont.) hopped on the loose biscuit and came streaking into Guelph's zone. With a defenceman closing in, Connolly went from her forehand to her backhand and slid it between Valerie Lamenta's legs for her first of the season.
Four minutes later, the Gryphons regained the lead on a bit of a miscue by Alex Armstrong (Mississauga, Ont.). The Rams' goaltender ventured out of her net to play the puck but fanned on her pass. Guelph's Claire Merrick quickly centred it and Kelly Gribbons fired a shot into the empty net to make it 2-1.
Ryerson counterpunched a few shifts later. Following some good work down low by Victoria Chapman (Belleville, Ont.), Claire Sabine (Woodstock, Ont.) centred the puck to Amanda Grant (Dorchester, Ont.) alone in the slot. Grant snapped a shot between the posts for her first goal as a Ram. Chapman also picked up her first point in a Ryerson jersey on the play.
"I feel like I kind of lucked out," said Grant. "My linemates did all of the work down in the corners and (I) just kind of got lucky with that shot out front. It definitely feels good though."
Jessica Pinkerton restored the Gryphons' advantage late in the frame when she banged home a rebound right in front of Armstrong. That proved to be the game winner as Christine Grant found the back of the net on a partial break with 3:37 left in the third period and Pinkerton added an empty netter in the final minute.
Lamenta turned aside 18 of the 20 shots she faced for the win in net while Armstrong made 27 saves at the other end of the ice.
Guelph has now won 13 of its last 14 games and hold a record of 12-3-2-1 overall. Ryerson falls to 2-0-13-1 and remain last in the OUA.
The matchup was the highlight of the Rams' Do It For Daron fundraiser in support of Youth Mental Health. A large crowd attended the game and many stayed for a moving speech by Taylor Winnik, the wife of Toronto Maple Leafs centreman Daniel Winnik.
"Our players put a lot of effort into (today's) performance, not just on the ice but everything that's happening before and after the game," said Haley. "I'm really really proud of their efforts. I think they've done an outstanding job representing our school that way."
Ryerson returns to the ice on Friday, January 29th when they lace up against the Windsor Lancers at the MAC. Puck drop for Pink in the Rink night in support of breast cancer is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
Source: Ryerson Rams
Lancers fall short in third period comeback
A third period comeback fell just short as the Lancer women's hockey team fell 4-3 to the visiting Laurentian Voyageurs on Saturday afternoon at South Windsor Arena.
Both teams payed fairly conservative in the first period as neither team scored or took a penalty, until five seconds remaining when Voyageur Jessica Staats beat Windsor goalie, Ingrid Sandven.
The Voyageurs carried the momentum of their 1-0 lead into the second period as the action began to pick up. At 9:05 of the second period, Sam Morell put the Voyageurs up 2-0 after a pass from Taylor Weber.
Seven minutes later, Weber scored a goal of her own, with assists going to Julie Hebert and Sara Habal. Weber's goal would conclude the scoring for the second period, and the Voyageurs would head to the intermission with a 3-0 lead.
Halfway through the third period, Windsor began to come back. Erinn Noseworthy managed to beat Laura Deller on the powerplay to bring the Lancers within two.
Five minutes later, Noseworthy scored her fifth goal of the weekend to bring the Lancers even closer to tying the game.
Just over two minutes later however, Renee Leclair restored the Voyageurs two goal lead.
A minute after that, Windsor would score again with a Shawna Lesperance's league-leading twelfth goal of the season. However, this would be as close as Windsor would get, and the Voyageurs would win their second game of the weekend with another score of 4-3.
Windsor will now hit the road for a pair of games against the Toronto Varsity Blues and Ryerson next weekend in Toronto.
Source: Windsor Lancers
Garnham leads Varsity Blues past Badgers
Third-year defenceman Autumn Garnham scored two goals and added one assist in leading the University of Toronto Varsity Blues women's hockey team to a 4-2 win over the Brock Badgers on Saturday night (Jan. 23) in St. Catharines, Ont.
With the win, the Blues improve to 6-2-4-3, while the Badgers drop to 5-1-9-1 in the OUA standings.
The Badgers opened the scoring 7:37 into the game with a goal off the stick of Laura Neu. The Blues bounced back though, scoring two goals 21 seconds apart towards the end of the opening frame. Veteran forward Sonja Weidenfelder scored on the powerplay with 1:44 to go in the first period and rookie Kiyono Cox notched her second goal of the season to give U of T the 2-1 lead after 20 minutes of action.
Garnham notched her first of the game 3:08 into the second period, and after Brock added an early marker in the third period, Garnham added an insurance marker less than two minutes later to secure the victory.
Rookie netminder Valencia Yordanov posted 22 saves in the win.
The Varsity Blues are back in action next Friday, January 29 as they host the Western Mustangs at Varsity Arena. The following night, the Blues will take on the Windsor Lancers in their ninth annual Think Pink, #BleedBlue game. Game time on both nights is set for 7:30 p.m.
Source: Toronto Varsity Blues
OSHAWA, Ont. – Despite the 4-1 scoreline, Saturday night was positive for the UOIT women's hockey team as they kicked off their fundraiser for team Emma.
The second game of the fundraiser will take place on Sunday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. when the Laurier Golden Hawks pay a visit to the Campus Ice Centre.
Emma is seven-years-old and is fighting Ewing sarcoma (an aggressive bone cancer). Emma has completed nine cycles of chemotherapy with four more to go. In October, Emma underwent a major surgery that removed her humerus and replaced it with a bone from her leg, her fibula. Emma is a brave, beautiful young girl who battles hard everyday to win this fight. Her recovery from the surgery has been remarkable. She has already laced up her skates to prove that she is most definitely 'sticking it to cancer.'
On the ice, UOIT could not overcome an early deficit as the second-place Waterloo Warriors earned their fourth straight win.
Rachel Marriott and Kaitlyn McDonell scored first period goals for Waterloo, a lead they would hold into the third period.
Five minutes into the third, Mikaeli Cavell (Edmonton, Alta.) got the Ridgebacks on the board with her fourth goal of the season. Sarah Biesenthal (Chepstow, Ont.) and Sam Forchielli (Hamilton, Ont.) chipped in with assists on the play.
Waterloo would quickly shut down any momentum UOIT had as Marriott struck again restoring the two-goal lead. With Cassie Charette (Ottawa, Ont.) pulled, McDonell would match Marriott's two-goal night scoring an empty netter.
Charette made 21 saves in her fourth straight start while Stephanie Sluys stopped 18 of 19 UOIT shots on net.
Despite the Ridgebacks earning their first win in program history against Waterloo during their inaugural season, the Warriors have simply dominated the head-to-head match-up. You have to go back to Nov. 20, 2010 to find UOIT's last win over Waterloo.
Source: UOIT Ridgebacks
