The University of Toronto Varsity Blues women’s hockey team defeated the No. 10 Guelph Gryphons 6-4 on Monday, January 4 at Varsity Arena.

With the win the Blues improve to 7-6-1 and are tied for fifth place with the Western Mustangs with two games in hand.

The Blues opened the scoring on the powerplay two minutes into the game when third-year forward Lindsay Hill (Ajax, Ont.) received a cross-crease pass from team captain Karolina Urban (Kamloops, B.C.) and found the back of the net.

Less than three minutes later Hill garnered her second goal of the game as she split the Guelph defencemen and found herself all alone on Gryphons goaltender Danielle Skoufranis, backhanding the puck into the top corner.

Urban scored a shorthanded breakaway goal 10:59 into the first period to put the Blues up by three. The third-year faculty of physical education and health student was chased down and tripped by a Gryphons defenceman but still managed to get the shot away to beat Skoufanis on her blocker side.

U of T got into penalty trouble towards the end of the period and the Gryphons finally got on the board with a five-on-three advantage. Jenna Lanzarotta (Mississauga, Ont.) found herself all alone in front of the net and capitalized on a Tori Woods (Orangeville, Ont.) rebound, roofing the puck over Blues goaltender Kendyl Valenta (Brampton, Ont.).

Toronto held a 3-1 lead after the first period of play.

The Gryphons came out strong in the second and narrowed the lead to one when Katherine Van Vlack (Napanee, Ont.) tipped a Lucia Mazza (Sudbury, Ont.) point shot into the net.

With the score 3-2 at the midway point of the game, U of T began to rally and went on to score three unanswered goals in the last eight minutes.

Kingston, Ont. native Brenley Jorgensen came skating down the wing and sent a hard backhand over Skoufranis’ glove at the 12:57 mark of the second period.

Two minutes later second-year forward Callie Bazak (Peterborough, Ont.) shot the puck from behind the goal line to hit Skoufranis in the back of the leg and find the back of the net.

Assistant captain Emily Milito (Ottawa, Ont.) gave linemate Ragan Danford (Madoc, Ont.) a beautiful pass in the slot with 26 seconds remaining and the first-year forward made no mistake tallying her sixth goal of the season to give the Blues a 6-2 lead heading into the final frame.

The play went back-and-forth throughout the third period with neither team creating many opportunities.

With third-year Blues defenceman Natalie Hughes (Toronto) in the penalty box, the Gryphons were finally able to score with 37 second left in the game off the stick of Tayne Hewer (Barrie, Ont.).

With just two seconds remaining, Guelph added their fourth goal as Tamara Bell (Guelph, Ont.) sent a booming shot past a screened Valenta and into the net. Despite the late attempt, the Gryphons were unable to complete the comeback and Toronto skated away with their seventh win of the season.

Valenta made 36 saves and was named the Varsity Blues player of the game for her solid effort between the pipes.

The Varsity Blues return to action tomorrow night (Jan. 5) as they host the Waterloo Warriors at Varsity Arena. The puck drops at 8 p.m.

Both tonight and tomorrow’s games were originally scheduled for Nov. 1 and Nov. 8 but were postponed as per OUA policy due to confirmed cases of HINI.

For more information, scores and highlights on your favourite Toronto teams, please visit the home of the Varsity Blues at http://www.varsityblues.ca.