The Varsity Blues women’s hockey team continued its domination over OUA opponents Friday night defeating the visiting Windsor Lancers, 4-1. Along with a 13-0 walloping of Western the following night, the Blues remain in first place in the OUA East division with a record of 14-1-1.
The Lancers drop to 4-11-0 and sit in third spot in the West division.
Toronto opened the scoring a mere 20 seconds into the game on what can only be described as a garbage goal. Safiya Muharuma’s shot was stopped, however the rebound sat by Laframboise’s pad for a few seconds tangled up in skates before captain Urszula May poked it into the net. Jenny McRae also assisted on the goal.
The Blues kept up the pressure and when Lancer Kate Dumouchelle was sent off for tripping later in the opening period, they took full advantage. Kim Malcher’s shot found its way through a crowd to put the home side up by two.
Shots at the end of the first were 19-1 for the Blues.
Toronto coach Karen Hughes, an assistant coach with the Canadian national team, was pleased with the effort, at least for two periods.
“We started off really well,” she said, but “our third period wasn’t great. We got a lot of penalties, not all deserved, and we lost our rhythm and flow.”
Only the heroics of Windsor goaltender Renee Laframboise kept the game close. The Appin, Ontario native turned aside 51 shots to help somewhat contain the explosive Blues offence. She made numerous breathtaking stops as the U of T offensive juggernaut produced many high-quality scoring chances. A stingy U of T defence limited the visitors to only 10 shots, most of which were fairly low percentage.
U of T continued its domination in the second, adding two more tallies late in the period to give themselves a comfortable two goal cushion.
McRae completed her two-point night at 16:52 when she bulged the twine with a stunning wrist shot to the top corner from in close.
Carla Pagniello and Jillian Savin grabbed the assists. Donna Paul added a back breaker when she slid the puck into the goal with only four and a half seconds left Windsor cut the lead to three in the third, but it was too little too late as the Blues were able to hang on for the victory.
Saturday night’s game against Western was a full 60 minutes of domination. Rookie goalie Lisa Robertson recorded an easy shutout as the Blues outshot the Mustangs 54-9.
U of T scored on seven of eight power play chances and added a pair of short-handed goals, including one while Western had a two-man advantage.
May scored a hat trick, while Malcher led all point producers with two goals and two assists en route to the win.
The Blues played to a 1-1 draw with #5 Concordia in an exhibition match on Sunday. They will next travel to play Western on Saturday and Windsor on Sunday.
Notes In Friday’s game the Lancers did manage one of only two goals surrendered by Toronto in three weekend contests.
Valerie Hamel’s low wrist shot beat Blues goalie Allison Houston on the short side 1:02 into the third to break up a shutout bid. Houston looked shocked as, contrary to conventional hockey logic, allowing one goal in the game actually caused her goals against average to be raised, and denied her a fourth shutout on the season.
