The Varsity Blues women’s hockey team fell prey to the Laurier Golden Hawks, dropping a 4-2 decision on Friday, November 12 at Sun Life Arena at Waterloo, Ont.

The Hawks Tammy Freiburger (Wingham, Ont.) scored her first goal of the season 2:38 into the opening period to give her team some positive momentum to start the game.

In the second, Laurier’s Andrea Shapero of Toronto attempted to pass her teammate the puck skating down on a two on one and the puck took a weird bounce off a defender for her third of the year. The Hawks got into some penalty trouble late in the period going down 5-on-3 for just under a minute.
Liz Knox (Stouffville, Ont.) shut the door to keep her team up 2-0 after two. Knox made 30 saves on 32 shots on the night in the win.

The Blues got on the board in the third period with a power play goal on another 5-on-3. Amanda Ricker (Kanata, Ont.) scored off a rebound in front as the puck hit the traffic and Knox couldn’t find the puck. The Hawks Katherine Shirriff (Carrying Place, Ont.) responded with a semi-breakaway after a blocked shot from the point. She scored her fourth of the year but crashed into Blues goalie Nicole Kesteris (Aurora, Ont.) on the play. This must have upset Kesteris as she took a slashing penalty less than a minute later when a Laurier player skated in for a rebound.

On the power play, Darby Smith (Madoc, Ont.) skated hard from the corner, made a nice deke around a Laurier defender and backhanded her second of the year over the left shoulder of Knox. Caitlin Muirhead (Waterloo, Ont.) put the game out of reach with a power play goal from the high slot from a nice pass from the point by Candice Styles (Orangeville, Ont.).

Nicole Kesteris turned aside 23-of-27 shots on the night in the loss.

The Varsity Blues return to the ice on Sunday, November 14 when they travel back to Waterloo to take on the Warriors. Game time is scheduled for 2 p.m.

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