After starting the season with five straight losses, the Golden Hawks women’s hockey team has picked up points in four of their last six games including their first two wins of the season in that span.
Coming off of two wins in a span of three games, Head coach Kelly Paton believed that her team had been playing an improved style of hockey.
However, back-to-back games last week where Laurier was only able to score a total of two goals had the Golden Hawks and Coach Paton searching for answers.
Coach Paton stated that “The focus moving forward is still on the production offensively.” Laurier’s offense has struggled all year – they scored only four goals in the first five games and with a 3-0 loss last Thursday to Ryerson, and they have been shut out a league high of four times just in the first half of the season.
Laurier entered last week’s back-to-back games with excitement as the annual school day hockey game was hosted by the Golden Hawk women for the first time in history.
Thus, Laurier was playing at the Kitchener Auditorium, which had Coach Paton excited for such an “energetic” environment.
In a game featuring over 4,000 elementary school kids, the Windsor Lancers were able to open the scoring, although held the lead for only a matter of time. Kennedy Choma scored her first career goal as a Golden Hawk on the power play to tie the game up at one.
The Golden Hawks scored early in the second period and held on to a 2-1 lead until five minutes were left in the third period, where a bad bounce of the puck gave way to the Lancers who scored the game-tying goal, pushing the game to overtime.
Overtime did not decide anything, and the Lancers were able to win the game 3-2 off of second-year forward Jessica Gribbon’s goal in the shootout.
It was a quick turnaround for the Golden Hawks, as they had to travel to Toronto for a matchup with the Ryerson Rams the following night.
Fatigue certainly seemed like an issue in that game as Laurier committed six penalties throughout the game and conceded three goals in the first period while being shut out for the fourth time.
The Golden Hawks have struggled on the special teams this year as well, as they have the second most penalty minutes in the league (122) and also have only scored on two of 44 power play opportunities this year.
Coach Paton urged the team to stop taking penalties as she mentioned, “we cannot let emotions dictate the game for us, it is too costly.”
The Golden Hawks currently sit with two wins in a total of 11 games played this year, putting them in the bottom three of the OUA.
They will finish the first half of the season and look forward to a break as they travel to Guelph on Wednesday night before playing Ryerson at home on Saturday.
The Golden Hawks are still looking for their first home win of the season.
