The York University Lions women's hockey team earned a hard-fought and much-needed 4-3 overtime win Thursday night at Canlan Ice Sports over their longtime rivals from Carlton Street, the TMU Bold.
The Lions snapped a couple long streaks with the win. First and foremost, they halted a six-game losing streak that stretched back to a November 20 OT win over the Laurier Golden Hawks. They also ended a goalless drought of 209:46 on an Alexa Giantsopoulos goal 0:56 into the second period.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
- The first big chance of the game came in the early moments as Alexia Ursua was sprung on a breakaway pass from all the way just above the goal line in the Bold zone, but Lions netminder Julianna Thomson was equal to the task to keep the game scoreless.
- However the deadlock was broken by the Bold not long after, as a long shot from the point by Ahalya Julien-Medeiros was tipped home by Dani Fox to make it 1-0 TMU, which is how the first period would end.
- The Lions got the equalizer in the first minute of the second period as they started the period strong, applying pressure in the TMU zone. Eventually, banged it home in the crease off the initial shot from Julia Cuccia to tie it at 1-1.
- TMU retook the lead four minutes later as Erika Crouse got in behind the Lions defence shorthanded and beat Thomson to make it 2-1 Bold.
- The Lions didn't take long to respond, however. Just 29 seconds later, Lexi Anonech took a pass from Sasha Brucker, skated into the top of the circle and ripped one glove side on Alexia Stratos to re-tie the game, this time at 2.
- Late in the second, the Bold capitalized on an extended 5-on-3, and quickly. TMU moved the puck around nicely off the faceoff, and Julien-Medeiros fired one under the glove of Thomson 12 seconds into the second penalty. That made it 3-2 in favour of the visitors.
- The Lions were then the recipients of a long 5-on-3 of their own, and Ava Ricker-Singh made a pretty shot-pass for Jenn Shaw, who re-directed it past Stratos to knot the game at 3-3. That goal put her back alone in top spot on the Lions goal-scoring race with five.
- After a scoreless third period sent the game to overtime, where the Lions had to kill off part of a late-third-period penalty, it was Ricker-Singh who played hero. She and Brooke Anderson were on a partial 2-on-1 at centre, and after the Bold defender got puck-watching, Ricker-Singh got in behind the defence. Anderson slid it through and Ricker-Singh made no mistake on the breakaway, solidifying a dramatic 4-3 OT victory for the Lions – their first win in almost two months.
LOOKING AHEAD:
The Lions will look to ride the wave of this second straight OT victory when they travel to Oshawa on Saturday night to take on the Ontario Tech Ridgebacks. Action begins at 7:00 pm.
