February 22, 2017

Lakers grab early lead over Laurentian with 5-2 win

At this point of the season you want to be playing your best hockey and while Wednesday night's game wasn't their best, it was a win for the Nipissing Lakers women's hockey team.

Laurentian

Nipissing

Final	1	2	3	T
Laurentian	0	0	2	2
Nipissing	0	2	3	5

At this point of the season you want to be playing your best hockey and while Wednesday night's game wasn't their best, it was a win for the Nipissing Lakers women's hockey team.

The Lakers came away with a 5-2 victory over the Laurentian Voyageurs in Game 1 of their first round OUA Playoff series thanks to solid goaltending and a three goal cushion they built up.

Nipissing built up a three goal cushion before ending up on the win column at the end of the night.

After a scoreless first period, the Lakers struck early in the second as Jade Gauthier walked out of the corner and roofed the game's opening goal.

Brooklyn Irwin and Sam Strassburger earned helpers on the goal that made it 1-0 Nipissing.
Just a second shy of 18 minutes after Gauthier's goal, Irwin competed a pretty passing play, as she tapped in a goal on the doorstep after a perfect feed from Kaley Tienhaara.

Zosia Davis picked up the additional assist on the goal and Nipissing led 2-0 after two.

Just 13 seconds into the third, Laura McKenzie scored what would be the gamew-winner, finding the back of the net for her first of the post-season.

Jetta Derenoski grabbed the lone assist on the McKenzie tally.

With the goalie pulled, the Voyageurs stormed back and scored two goals in 20 seconds to cut their deficit to just one.

With the goalie still out, Taylor Murphy made it 4-2 and Derenoski added another empty-net goal with just over two minutes to go to seal the game.

Irwin, Davis and Derenoski all finished the night with two points, leading the offensive charge.

Jackie Rochefort didn't have to be spectacular, but she certainly was busy, making 49 saves to pick up the victory.

She was especially busy in the third, making 22 stops while seeing just two shots get buy.

The Lakers now lead the best-of-three series 1-0 and will look for the sweep Saturday night in Sudbury.

Puck drop is set for 7:20pm at Countryside Arena.