Playing the first-ranked team in the country is no way to end a team’s losing ways. The Queen’s Golden Gaels women’s hockey team learned that lesson Saturday night as they fell to the visiting Laurier Golden Hawks by a score of 2-1.
After a tentative start to the game from both teams, the Golden Hawks opened the scoring in the first period on a goal from Andrea Ironside. Ironside broke in from the right side and put a nice move from in close on Queen’s goalie Claire Hunt to give Laurier an early 1-0 lead.
The teams exchanged chances throughout the period, but it wasn’t until the Gaels were given their first power play that they tied the game. After struggling to establish possession through much of that power play, Victoria Kaufmann took control of the puck in the Laurier end and via a Mary McNeill , Amanda Morra found herself unmarked in the slot and blasted a shot past goaltender Morgan Wielgosz. Wielgosz came into the game ranked second in the CIS with a 1.11 goals against average.
The Golden Hawks had the last say in the first period, however, as Lauren Meschino skated in on a 1-on-4 break, catching Claire Hunt off guard to her glove side to give Laurier a 2-1 lead going into the intermission.
Queen’s started off the second period with a bang, managing quite a few chances against the country’s first-ranked team.
“Our game plan was to not allow ourselves to sit back just because of who they are,” said Queen’s alternate captain Miranda Costie. “We wanted to constantly put pressure on them and force them to turn the puck over.”
The Gaels were not rewarded for their hard work, however, as Queen’s went into the second intermission still down 2-1.
The third period continued to be frustrating for the Gaels, as they remained unable to net the tying goal, and fell by that same 2-1 score.
Despite the loss, Queen’s remained optimistic about their performance in the game.
“The nice thing about this game is that we know that we can beat them and we still did not play to the best of our abilities,” Costie said. “We still have a few more notches to step it up.”
The Gaels remained disciplined in the face of some very physical play by the Golden Hawks as they did not allow a single man-advantage to the dangerous Golden Hawks power play unit during this game.
Laurier and Queen’s have developed a strong rivalry in the last few years, including a match up in the 2003-04 OUA final in which the Golden Hawks came out victorious. Counting that game, the Gaels have dropped five straight decisions to Laurier, including a 2-0 loss earlier this season. The Golden Hawks came into the season as the prohibitive favourite in the OUA, bringing back first-team all-stars Ashley Stephenson and Laurissa Kenworthy, as well as 2005 Coach of the Year Rick Osborne.
The Gaels have now lost five of their last six games and sit fifth in the nine-team OUA women’s division. They will try to get back into the win column with away games against the third-ranked University of Toronto next Saturday and Sunday.
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