The women’s hockey team started last weekend on a high, completing a three-game season-series sweep of the Brock Badgers with a 6-3. They fell hard on Sunday afternoon, though, losing 4-0 to the fourth-place Guelph Gryphons.
Head coach Matt Holmberg said the weekend’s performance was a case of defensive inconsistency.
“I was generally pleased with the Brock game. We started capitalizing on plays and shots that the previous weekend we weren’t, and that’s a great sign,” he said. “Sunday was a different story—the difference really was playing our own zone. We weren’t strong on the puck. We were making very poor choices with the puck when we got it that led to three goals in the first period. Guelph was a tough team to spot three goals to. When we got it out of the zone we were very good, but it’s tough to come from behind with a lead like that.”
Although the 4-0 result against Guelph was poor, Holmberg said positives can be drawn from the game.
“We outshot both teams this past weekend,” he said. “We’re continuing to do good things in the offensive zone so we’re going to try to continue that.”
Forward Liz Kench, who is tied for first in the OUA for points with 30, said the shot counts are indicative of a strategy the team has been employing all season. The team has outshot their opponents in five straight games, dating back to the Gaels’ 4-1 win over the Gryphons on Jan. 9.
“I still think that we’re probably not getting as much offence as we’d like to, but everyone’s shooting at the right time,” she said. “We’re not failing at the opportunity to shoot, we’re just having trouble finding the missing spot and putting the puck in the net.”
As for the nature of the games over the weekend, Kench said she agreed with Holmberg.
“The Brock game was a pretty back-and-forth game. We always had the lead but it could’ve gone either way. We’d score, they’d score and so on. They were right in it and it as a battle right to the end,” she said.
Forward Kristin Smith, who notched four points in the win over Brock on Saturday, said some of the drive for that game came from the previous weekend which saw the Gaels lose 2-1 in a shootout at York on Saturday and 4-3 to the University of Toronto Varsity Blues on Sunday.
“We really regrouped for the Brock game after a tough game in Toronto the week before,” she said. “We came out flat against Guelph and we couldn’t fight back in that one.”
Smith said the Gaels need to elevate their game to sur the first-place 20-0 Wilfred Laurier University Golden Hawks in the standings.
“I would say we’re right to be in second position right now. We have work to do if we want to win the OUA title. We need to keep working hard and controlling games we need to control.”
The Gaels are back in action this weekend when they visit Toronto to take on the Ryerson Rams on Saturday and the University of Ontario Institute of Technology Ridgebacks on Sunday.
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