Amanda Fawns’ goal in the first minute of overtime gave U of T a deserved 2–1 victory over the Waterloo Warriors at the Varsity Arena last Saturday. Fawns tipped April Looije’s slap shot from the point into the net after the latter had worked the puck into the Waterloo offensive zone.
“It was a hard forecheck and we were able to get the puck to the point,” Fawns said. “Looije took a nice shot and I tipped it in.”
The Varsity Blues are now above .500 with a 9–7–1 record following the win. The overtime victory was their second in as many weeks against the Warriors; Toronto beat Waterloo 4–3 in overtime on January 6.
Despite going down a goal in the second period, the Blues kept fighting, spurred by the stellar goaltending of Nicole Kesteris. The hard work eventually paid off when, with three minutes left in the third period, captain Karolina Urban scored a late equalizer for the Blues. Fawns’ overtime goal less than five minutes later would seal the deal for U of T.
“We worked hard tonight,” said women’s hockey head coach Vicky Sunohara. “We were telling the girls between the second and third [periods] not to give up. The [tying] goal came a little bit late, but a win is a win.”
Kesteris was fantastic in between the pipes, making 16 saves from 17 shots, including two crucial ones in the last two minutes of the third period. “[Kesteris] was great,” Sunohara said, “she hasn’t played in a long time, but she came in and showed she hasn’t missed a beat.”
The Blues were clearly the stronger team in the opening stages of the game. Urban had the first real chance of the game when her shot went just wide of the Waterloo net following a nice pass from line-mate Brenley Jorgensen.
The Blues ran into penalty trouble however, with three in the opening ten minutes of the period. The Blues successfully killed the penalties and escaped unscathed, thanks to Kesteris’ stellar goaltending. The first frame ended scoreless with Kesteris’ counterpart in the Waterloo goal impressive as well.
Waterloo looked much more dangerous in the second period and it was now the Blues who were on their heels. The Warriors finally opened the scoring with 13 minutes left in the second, when two Blues players got tangled in front of the net, allowing the Waterloo captain to slot in unchallenged from short range.
The goal did not faze the Blues, who kept up the hard work and peppered the Waterloo goalie with shots. The Warriors’ backstop, however, remained on her game, and when the buzzer sounded at the end of the second Waterloo retained their one goal advantage.
The Blues held nothing back in the crucial third period, getting pucks on net and forcing the Waterloo goaltender to work even harder. Despite some power play chances, the Blues were still looking at a 1–0 deficit heading into the final five minutes of the frame.
The breakthrough came with Urban’s game-tying goal with three minutes left, sending the game into overtime. It took only a minute for Fawns to tip in Looije’s point shot, giving the Varsity Blues a hard-fought overtime victory.
The Blues lost 6–0 to the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks Sunday. Laurier sit at the top of the standings with a 17–1 record.
“Laurier is a good team,” Sunohara said.
The Varsity Blues take on York University on Thursday January 20 at the Varsity Arena at 2 pm before facing Ryerson University away on Saturday January 22 .
