The Laurier women’s hockey team dropped a close one as they fell 3-2 to the Western Mustangs in a shootout on Saturday afternoon.
In the midst of a four game losing streak and coming off back-to-back road losses to Laurentian and Nipissing, the Hawks returned home to try and spoil the Mustangs’ playoff chances.
The Hawks looked sluggish early on, but were rewarded in the first period when Emily Woodhouse was able to score on the power play and give the Hawks a 1-0 lead.
I hope this game is a wake up call for our first and second-year players.
Rick Osborne, head coach
Head coach Rick Osborne was unhappy with the teams’ first period effort.
“We had a pretty horrible first period; I didn’t think our feet were moving. We actually had a poor practice Tuesday and we played like we practiced Tuesday. We had a decent practice Thursday and that’s how we played the second period,” he said.
However, the 1-0 score-line was short lived, as less than a minute later, Mustangs forward Lyndsay Kirkham was able to beat Laurier goaltender Amanda Smith and tie the game at one.
The second period looked better for Laurier as Woodhouse was, once again, able to beat Western’s goaltender, Katie Jacobs.
Woodhouse recorded her first multi-goal game since joining the Hawks this fall, an OUA first for the first-year forward.
“Woody, it doesn’t surprise me. As a rookie, she’s come in and she’s been doing that most of the year,” Osborne said.
The score remained 2-1 after two periods of play.
Western came out hard, searching for the tying goal in the third period and were able to find it as Kirkham buried her second goal of the game to tie the game at two apiece.
The remainder of the third went scoreless as the teams headed to overtime.
Two overtime periods of four on four and then three on three solved nothing and a shootout was required.
The Mustangs looked well prepared for the shootout as both of their first two shooters, Tia Kipfer and Rachel Armstrong were able to find the back of the net while the Golden Hawks’ shooters Carly Aucoin and Jaden Head weren’t able to score.
Although the Hawks didn’t win, Smith set a Laurier record for the most saves in a game with an astonishing 60 saves.
“When our goalie makes 60 saves, I’d like to win that game. Smitty has held us in every game the second half of the season and she deserves more support from us,” Osborne said.
Overall, Osborne was disappointed once again with the results and ultimately the way the entire season has played out.
“I hope the game is a wake up call for our first and second-year players coming back because [Western] is battling for eighth place and the foot speed that they had winning, the races, the battles, we’ve got some work to do in the offseason,” he said.
“It’s going to be a tough summer for our kids — they’re going to have to train pretty hard.”