WATERLOO, Ont. - The #3-ranked Laurier Golden Hawks closed out their five-game homestand at the Waterloo Memorial Recreation Complex with an emphatic 5-0 victory over the Western Mustangs on Halloween night.
Emma Kloosterman made her first OUA start after entering the previous night's contest in the third period.
"We're really excited for Emma. She's such a nice kid, her teammates love her, and she works hard every day," said Laurier assistant coach
Nik Knezic. "She had a few high-danger looks against, but she was there, she was square to pucks, and she was confident."
Despite Laurier's high-scoring outings, one area that had remained a concern was its lack of success on the power play. The Golden Hawks finally reversed the trend as
Caryss Kehl opened the scoring with a special teams tally.
"We were first in the league in goals with the worst power play in the league," noted Knezic. "We just tried to simplify it. When you get bogged down on the power play, it's really easy to want to try and control everything, and sometimes it's better if you let go of it and just play. That's what we tried to do, and it worked today."
Ella Jackson scored the second goal of the game with a tight-angled shot over the shoulder of Presley Daschuk, off the crossbar and in.
Jackson scored again in the subsequent period off the rush to make it 3-0.
Laurier then went on the power play twice, with the first opportunity helping captain
Clara Chisholm get in on the scoring.
The goal forced Western to make a goalie change, bringing Mya Hepburn into the game.
On the next power-play,
Ella Jackson walked the puck down the middle and fired home her third goal, recording her first career OUA hat trick.
"I just went into the game with a shot-first mentality. I wanted to get a lot of pucks to the net, and test their goalie early. I had success against her in pre-season," explained Jackson, who scored against Daschuk in Laurier's 4-3 pre-season win versus Western. "I had four other people on the ice helping me out, just executing on our plays and leading me to good spaces to put the puck in the net."
In her fourth year with the program, Jackson has embraced a leadership role, setting an example for a young Laurier roster.
"I lead with a lot of maturity on the ice, making good decisions. We have a young team, so I'm using my leadership to show them the ropes on the ice," Jackson continued. "We've had some really good success with some of the young girls; most of them have their first OUA point."
Laurier held the fort in the third period, with Kloosterman stopping all five shots she faced to earn her first career OUA shutout.
"I was really excited to get back in there. Vibes were good at warm-up, and I was just ready to go," said Kloosterman. "It feels really good; it's a team shutout. They played really well in front of me, so I'm just really excited."
The Golden Hawks extended their win streak to five and continue to lead the OUA West. They will journey to Ottawa next weekend for a Friday night matchup against last season's playoff opponents, the Ottawa Gee-Gees (3-2-1-0).
Subscribers can stream the game and catch the weekend's action live on OUA.tv.
