The No. 9 nationally ranked York University Lions women's hockey team was defeated in a shootout by a 4-3 score by the Laurentian Voyageurs in Sudbury, Ont., on Saturday evening.
The Lions picked up a point in the standings as the race for the playoffs continues and are now third with 41 points, one point back of second-place Nipissing and one ahead of Waterloo.
The Lions played hard with excellent defence, but neither team found the back of the net in the first period.
In the second period, the Lions were playing strong defence, but the Voyageurs cracked the scoreboard at the 7:40 mark. Regan Toltesi scored the opening goal assisted by Payton Bray and Ariana Bowditch. The Lions gained a power play at the end of the period, but they were not able to capitalize on their extra player advantage. The period ended with the Voyageurs in a 1-0 lead.
In the third there was a flurry of activity as the two teams combined for five goals. The Lions came out offensively strong, at they scored their first goal at the 1:09 mark.
Kelsey McHolm scored her 10
th goal of the season, assisted by
Courtney Gardiner.
Halfway through the period, McHolm came out with another goal, once again helped from Gardiner and
Samantha Jones, to give the Lions their first lead of the game. Two minutes later, the Voyageurs came back with a tying goal from Natalie Lamarche, assisted by Julia Giannitsopoulos. Not even a minute later, McHolm scored her third goal, unassisted, marking her hattrick and giving the Lions the lead again.
Four minutes later, the Voyageurs came back with a tying goal again from Megan Arnott, assisted by Annie Sheridan and regulation time ended 3-3.
Both teams went into overtime, where once again, neither team was able to crack the scoreboard and a shootout was required to determine the winner.
In the shootout, the Lions were able to score one goal from
Kara Washer, but the Voyageurs scored two and secured the win.
After two straight losses, the Lions will play their next game on Friday at home against the Guelph Gryphons at 7pm.
