York University Lions women's hockey goaltender
Megan Lee made 43 saves to lead her team to a 1-0 shootout victory over the No. 2 nationally-ranked Toronto Varsity Blues on Sunday afternoon (Nov. 22) at Canlan Ice Sports.
The result was Lee's second shutout of the weekend after she also blanked Ryerson on Saturday.
Through three periods, a 4-on-4 and a 3-on-3 overtime the game remained scoreless on Sunday. The Lions and Varsity Blues played a tight defensive style that allowed for no errors, which resulted in the low scoring affair.
The first period was controlled for the most part by the Lions inside the Blues blue line, but they couldn't manage to beat the stellar goaltending of Valencia Yordanov.
The second and third periods were much of the same as the first as the Lions came out with an aggressive attack and shut down the middle of the ice, limiting the high-powered Varsity Blues offence to the wings. The Varsity Blues are second in the OUA in goals per game with 2.67, but had no room to work against the defensive wall of the Lions.
Lee (Orillia, Ont.) was a dominant force between the pipes for the Lions, as she shut the door on multiple potential scoring chances.
The Lions and Varsity Blues couldn't end the game in regulation nor in overtimes, so the game was sent to a shootout, where the first shooter for the Lions was
Dana Somerville (Hockley, Ont.), who took the puck at centre and with a head of speed went backhand-forehand and pulled Yordanov out of position, and with time she gently slid the puck across the goal line.
After two Varsity Blues couldn't beat Lee and a Lion miss, the third shooter for the Lions was
Kristen Barbara (Mount Hope, Ont.). She darted through the middle of the ice and without any hesitation went upstairs on Yordanov to give the Lions the 1-0 win over their cross-town rivals.
The Lions are now 2-2-5-1 on the season, while the Varsity Blues fell to 5-2-1-2.
The Lions will look to continue their two-game winning streak next weekend when they welcome the UOIT Ridgebacks to Canlan Ice Sports for their last home game of 2015 on Friday night (Nov. 27) at 7pm.
