The University of Toronto Varsity Blues women’s hockey team fell 5-4 to the York Lions on Sunday, February 15 at Canlan Ice Sports.

Despite holding a 3-1 lead after two periods of play, the Lions rallied to score four third-period goals and defeated the No. 8 Blues for their 14th win of the season.

Second-year forward Amanda Fawns (Scarborough, Ont.) opened up the scoring five minutes into the first period, skating hard to get her own rebound and find the back of the Lions net.

Just over a minute later, Ottawa, Ont. native Emily Milito scored on the powerplay to give the Blues a two-goal lead.

York got on the board with an unassisted goal from fourth-year standout Mandy Cole (North York, Ont.) to cut Toronto’s lead to 2-1 after the first period of play.

Brenley Jorgensen (Kingston, Ont.) scored three minutes into the second period, sending a beautiful wrist shot over the glove of York goaltender Megan Slumskie (Baden, Ont.) into the top corner of the net.

Cole would add her second goal of the game early in the third period, but first-year Blues forward Allie White (Ottawa, Ont.) responded just over three minutes later, tapping in a Callie Bazak (Peterborough, Ont.) rebound to extend Toronto’s lead, 4-2.

However, that would be all the offence the Blues would produce as three different Lions scored in less than three minutes to jump ahead and close out the game 5-4.

Toronto has clinched third place in the OUA and will host the sixth-place team in a sudden-death quarter-final game. Date/time is TBD.

The Varsity Blues return home next Sunday, February 22 to host their last regular season game against the Brock Badgers at Varsity Arena. The puck drops at 5 p.m.