It may be too early in the season to be throwing around clichés such as ‘must-win game’, but for the Varsity Blues women’s hockey team, last Sunday’s game against the Windsor Lancers was as ‘must-win’ as you can get at this point in the season.
And the team responded to the challenge in a big way.
The Blues trounced the Lancers 8-2 Sunday afternoon at Varsity Arena, just 24 hours after being handed a disappointing and demoralizing 3-1 loss by the last-place Western Mustangs. It was a statement the team needed to make, and will hopefully signal the start of a string of victories in the new year.
However, even this convincing win did not start out well for the hometown squad. The Blues let Windsor build a 2-0 lead midway through the first period on goals by Holly Quinn and Mara Delaroche.
It was clear someone needed to step up, make a play, and dig the team out of this hole. Even with all the veteran talent and leadership in the lineup, it was first year winger Annie Delguidice who scored the goal that opened the floodgates for U of T.
This tally was the first of eight unanswered goals by Toronto, including three by Katie
Dowdall, another by Delguidice, and singles from Kim Devereaux, Justine Todd, and Emily Patry.
This offensive outburst may have come at the perfect time for the Blues. The loss to Western, a game where U of T carried the play for most of the contest, came after an up-and-down road trip where a lot of close games did not go the Blues’ way.
The fact that the spark for U of T came from the spunky Delguidice should come as no surprise to followers of the team. She was clearly the best player on the ice in the third period of the Western game, providing much needed energy and scoring chances, not to mention challenging her linemates to match her tireless intensity.
The native of Hamilton is now tied for third in team scoring with eight points (3 G, 5 A) and has certainly been one of the pleasant surprises for the Blues so far this season.
Coach Karen Hughes recognizes that the play of the first year players such as Delguidice-as well as Kristy Paterson and Lyndsey Ryan-has been a much needed boost.
“Our first-year group is doing very well. They are working hard and will continue to
improve if they stay with the program and continue to challenge themselves,” she said.
The biggest challenge for the coach in the second half of the season is to find consistency. The Blues haven’t won more than two games in a row all season, but Hughes believes it isn’t for a lack of effort, and cites attention to the finer details as a potential solution.
“It’s hard to say, but we need to do a better job on specialty teams. We have given up too many powerplay goals and we probably need to execute better on our own powerplay,” remarked Hughes.
With half a season in the books, the Blues (6-5-0-2) currently sit fourth in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) standings and are ranked tenth nationally. But it is the next portion of the season where the contenders separate themselves from the pretenders, and the Blues need to show that they deserve to be associated with Canada’s best.
Hughes sees the team as a work in progress but is optimistic about the rest of the campaign: “The league is very competitive so I don’t think anyone is disappointed with how we are doing. We need to continue to improve and to play at the level we are capable of, and working hard in the next month should help us to get there.”
Sunday’s victory over Windsor was certainly a step in the right direction.
