The York University Lions women's hockey team hosted the Nipissing Lakers on Saturday night at Canlan Ice Sports to open the home portion of their 2024-25 schedule. The game was a rematch of last year's OUA quarter-finals, a series the Lions swept in stunning fashion. The Lions are coming off a 3-2 loss to the TMU Bold in their first game of the season. 

The game was a territorial battle early on, with each team exchanging segments of extended puck possession in the opponent's zone. A holding penalty on York's Lexy Anonech gave the Lakers a power play seven minutes into the game, but netminder Emma Wedgewood and York stood strong, keeping the game scoreless. 

The Lakers would record the first goal of the game just four minutes later on a lucky bounce. Wedgewood went to play the puck, but it hit the end boards and came back out in front and ended up on the stick of Tahlia Fisher, who put it home to give Nipissing a 1-0 lead 11:00 in. 

Fifty-three seconds after scoring the game's first goal, a tripping penalty assessed to Sydney Hiltz gave Nipissing another power play advantage, however, the Lakers couldn't capitalize, and, ultimately, took that one-goal lead to the locker room.  

A Jill Hennessy holding penalty three minutes into the period brought about some 4-on-4 action after a overlapped with a Ginger Fast hooking call forty seconds prior. The extra ice resulted in nothing on the scoreboard, as the visitors maintained their 1-0 lead 

With less than a minute to go in the period, the Lakers Megan Hayhurst and the Lions Jill Milligan were assessed with head contact penalties, which was Hayhurt's second of the game. With both players in the box, the Lakers doubled the lead. Malory Dominico was able to come out of the corner, drive hard to the net and backhand it by Wedgewood to increase Nipissing's lead to 2-0 heading to the third. 

The Lakers continued to pile on in the third. Their next tally came six minutes in, when Kara Den Hoed had her initial shot blocked before going top corner on Wedgewood, giving the Lakers a 3-0 lead. Nipissing put it away after some hard work along the wall by Madison Desmerais, who delivered the puck to Lana Duriez. She made no mistake, snapping it home to cap the scoring in a 4-0 Laker win. 

LOOKING AHEAD: 

The Lions will have the next week off before hosting the TMU Bold in a rematch of their season opener on Sunday, October 20. Puck drop is scheduled for 2:00 pm.