WATERLOO, Ont. - Wrapping up a back-to-back on home ice to start the season, the Laurier Golden Hawks fell 3-1 to the Toronto Varsity Blues on Saturday night.

The first half of the opening period was evenly matched, with both teams limited to minimal shots. 

However, Toronto's Juliette Blais-Savoie opened the scoring with a shot from the point beating Laurier netminder Kathryn Raitano just under eight minutes in.

With less than two minutes left in the period, Laurier captain Hayley Szymanowski recovered the puck in the neutral zone to set up a breakaway for Ella Jackson, who scored her first of the season, tying the game at one. 

W??: GOAL?? Elle Spencer regains the puck in the neutral zone to send Ella Jackson on a breakaway!
1-1.#SoarAbove | #WLUvsTOR pic.twitter.com/vZGHg9mseF

— Laurier Golden Hawks (@WLUAthletics) October 12, 2024

The celebrations were short-lived though as a failed clearing attempt by the Golden Hawks in the last 20 seconds of the frame allowed Toronto to regain the lead when Taylor Delahey scored from the slot, sending them into the first intermission with a 2-1 lead.  

A clean breakout play for Toronto at the beginning of the second resulted in Christina Alexiou scoring from the slot, making it 3-1. 

This resulted in a goalie change for Laurier, with Kayla Renaud taking over between the pipes for Raitano, with the latter giving up three goals on seven shots. 

Unfortunately, the purple and gold still struggled to gain momentum. The special teams unit for both teams was disciplined defensively, and Toronto maintained their two-goal cushion heading into the third.

The final frame saw no additional goals but was marked by more penalties. Despite going 3-for-7 in their previous game, the Hawks power play unit had several chances at the end of the game—two 5-on-3 opportunities—but could not break through against Toronto's penalty kill and netminder Carlee Vance, ultimately going 0 for 9 on the night. 

"You've got to recognize your opponent's skill, and Toronto has consistently been a top-10 team in our league,"  said manager of women's hockey operations and head coach Kelly Paton. "They do things extremely well, especially below the goal line in the offensive zone. It's a learning space for us, but we hope to dictate the pace of play going forward,"

"We missed some major opportunities late in the game, especially with the 5-on-3s, so we've got to find ways to produce in those environments." 

Laurier captain Hayley Szymanowski described how the team's ability to get pucks to the net in Friday's win was missing on this night. 

"Whether it was traffic in front or blocked shots, we just need to return to crashing the net and outworking them in the paint."

Up Next:

The Golden Hawks have just the lone game at the tail-end of reading week, when they take on Queen's on Friday, October 18 at the Waterloo Memorial Rec Complex. Puck drop is scheduled for 7 pm.

Tickets are available now or watch the game live on OUA.tv