Hawks survive a scare

Waterloo Warriors goalie Martina Michaud and her Warriors down the street had revenge on their minds.

It was just over two months ago that the Golden Hawks women’s hockey squadron flew into Columbia Ice Fields and ravaged their cross-town counterparts with a 6-0 pounding on Nov. 4.

But there were pushovers wearing yellow and black on Sunday when the two rivals tangoed for their second meeting of the campaign.

Laurier emerged the victors once again — winning 3-1 — but this chapter of the battle of Waterloo featured a much different script.

A scoreless tie with the dead-last Warriors after one period had the league-leading Hawks puzzled.

But a 1-1 tie after the second was concerning.

“I thought they would tire a little earlier than they did and so I was really looking for the second period to be a momentum changer… it happened to be the third,” said Hawks head coach Rick Osborne.

Typically a formality in a match featuring any number-one ranked team and a basement dweller, the third period is usually a time for the winners to mercilessly rack up the points while the losers fruitlessly attempt to find a hole in the ice to submerge in and the audience to check their 50/50 ticket fortunes.

Not so on this day.

“I don’t think we were really smart [in our approach],” said Osborne. “They’ve got a lot of big players and usually our speed compensates for that… but too many of our players were on the perimeter, including our bigger players… they should be on the inside paying the price in the tough areas.”

Laurier’s lines had a hard time getting settled and special teams became the order of the day as 13 penalties were called between the two rivals.

“[Michaud]’s a big goalie. We weren’t really smart in picking our spots with her. [Alannah] Wakefield picked the upper corner but then we went back to shooting at her big pads down low,” said the coach.

“(Vanessa) Schabkar’s goal was a good example. Anything that makes her move left to right is a good move.”

Schabkar broke the deadlock with a wrister down the left flank that beat Michaud early in the third to seal the game for the Hawks.

“It was a good turnover by my line… I just took a hard, low shot… and it happened to go in,” explained the Etobicoke native.

“Rainsy (Abby Rainsberry) was screening her, and that’s what we need — bodies to the net.”

Liz Knox notched her 18th win of the season in her 20th straight start and the only puck to beat her was a deflection by UW’s Brittany Holland. Caitlin Muirhead had the other tally for Laurier.

“Teams play us awfully tough, especially in their home rink,” said Osborne. “[UW] played a good game.