With only seven games remaining in the regular season, Women’s Hockey (10-4-2-1) is on the brink of cementing their playoff chances. Currently holding third place in the league, the Blues are two points behind Queen’s (11-4-1-2) and nine points behind Laurier (15-2-2-0). U of T will face both teams in their stretch before the post-season.
Speed skating a must
As such, Coach Karen Hughes said her team is still looking to fine-tune their game.
“There are many crucial league games for us to battle through as we prepare for the playoffs, and we need to use each game to build and improve our play,” she said. “We need to continue to work on moving the puck better and being able to play with more speed. We need to be able to get ourselves in situations where we can use our skating advantage.
“We also need to improve our fore-checking and defensive zone play as we go through the remainder of the season.”
As the nation’s seventh-ranked squad, the Blues will host Windsor (5-9-4-0) Friday before travelling to Kingston on Sunday to take on Queen’s. U of T will be looking for the same success they had this past weekend, when they posted two more notches in the win column, claiming a 1-0 victory here over Waterloo on Sunday, two days after they defeated rivals York 3-2 at the Varsity Arena. Lindsay Ryan, Emily Patry and Katie Dowdall scored for the Blues on Friday to complete a season sweep over the Lions.
Blues sink Waterloo
The Warriors (6-8-2-1) had previously defeated U of T in October, thanks to taking advantage of several power play opportunities as Waterloo skated to a 4-2 victory. The prospect of taking revenge on the Warriors no doubt motivated the Blues, and the game was a fiercely contested affair from the moment the puck dropped.
Each team played tight defence and, as a result, good scoring chances were few and far between. When one side was able to create an offensive opportunity, the goalies were equal to the task. Both Waterloo’s Alexis Huber and Toronto’s Stephanie Lockert turned in outstanding performances to keep the game tied at zero heading in to the third period. The Blues were finally able to break the deadlock as Annie DelGuidice beat Huber for the game winner.
After the game, Hughes gave credit to Lockert and Jill Clark, the team captain, for contributing to the win.
“Today was not one of our best games, but I thought Stephanie Lockert played very well for us in net and Jill Clark had a solid game defensively,” she said. “We were much better at penalty killing today. In our first game against Waterloo they scored several power play goals against us and today we did a much better job of killing penalties.”
The penalty-killing unit was a key factor in the win, as the Blues successfully killed off a total of seven penalties on the day. However, Toronto shared Waterloo’s frustration, failing to take advantage of seven Warrior penalties on Sunday.
