The women’s hockey team won a pair of one-goal games against the visiting Guelph Gryphons last
weekend at Jock Harty Arena. On Saturday, the Gryphons scored with 51 seconds left in regulation to tie the game at two. Then, Cassandra Sparks scored 1:45 into overtime to earn the Gaels a 3-2 victory. On Sunday, rookie goaltender Katie Boyd made 30 saves for her first career shutout in the 1-0 win.
Both teams started slowly in the Gaels’ Saturday night home opener and entered the third period tied
at one. The women picked up the pace in the third period and, after Amanda Stenson gave the Gaels a 2-1 lead, Guelph’s Sarah McClinchey slid a shot under Boyd with 51 seconds remaining.
Unfazed, the Gaels continued to drive the net and create opportunities, resulting in Sparks’ goal at the beginning of overtime. Head coach Harold Parsons stressed the importance of team play in the victory.
“Some of our players may have been stars on their previous teams, but they’re buying into their new
roles … Guelph had three lines and we had four.”
Boyd said her team’s disallowed goal, which came almost immediately following Guelph’s first goal, was a turning point in the game. “Even though the goal was called back, it still brought the team up,” she said. The Gaels were able to use their speed to wear down the bigger but slower Gryphons. Sunday’s rematch was just as close as the previous game. Queen’s peppered the Guelph net with 40 shots, but the game remained scoreless well into the third period. “We know that if we’re disciplined we can compete against any team and we did a better job, as the weekend went on, of staying focused,” Parsons said. With 1:56 remaining in regulation, Michelle Clark- Crumpton scooped up a loose puck and fired it into the top corner of the Guelph net.
The win improves the Gaels’ record to 3-1 on the season and stretches its winning streak to three games. Despite going 1-14 on the power play over the weekend, including 0-10 on Sunday, Parsons praised his special teams’ performance. He was especially impressed by his team’s ability to kill off
two-man disadvantages in both games. “I was extremely proud of our penalty killers.”
Following second-year goaltender Melissa John’s loss in the season opener at Western, Boyd filled the starting spot for the weekend. She recorded wins in all three games and has allowed only three goals. Boyd said she was “surprised, but really happy” to start in both games. Parsons wouldn’t say who might be in the Gaels’ net next game. “We make those decisions later in the week, but we usually just
keep one in until she falters a bit … it’s probably going to be a fairly close ratio over the 24 games,” he said. The women have a pair of games at the University of Toronto tomorrow and Sunday.
Meanwhile, the injury-riddled men’s hockey team suffered two one-goal losses in games at Wilfred Laurier and Guelph last weekend. The team held a 3-1 lead going into the third period Saturday in Guelph, but lost 4-3 in overtime. The winning goal, Gryphon Tom LaPlante’s second of the game, came with a mere nine seconds remaining in the extra frame. Scoring for Queen’s were Jeff Ovens, T.J. Sutter and Rob Catallo. Queen’s rookie goaltender Ryan Gibb made 34 saves in the loss.
On Sunday the men lost their third one-goal game in a row, going down 5-4 to the Wilfred Laurier Golden Hawks. The Gaels dressed only 16 players in the game because of injuries to Brian Moore, Andrew Thorne and Pat McDonough. The Gaels put forth a gutsy effort despite their depleted lineup.
After going down 3-1 by the end of the first period, they clawed back to tie the game at four heading into the third. The men play tomorrow and Sunday at home against the Concordia Stingers and the Patriotes from the Universite du Quebec at Trois-Rivieres.
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