The Varsity Blues women’s hockey team dropped their final game of the regular season 3-0 to the Queen’s Gaels on Sunday, February 12 at Varsity Arena.

Despite the loss, the Blues (15-10-1) finish in third place in the OUA, ahead of the Gaels (14-9-3). The Blues will command home ice advantage against the Western Mustangs in the first round of OUA playoff.  The schedule of the best 2-of-3 series will be announced Monday.

The Blues honoured their graduating players in a special pre-game ceremony. Brenley Jorgensen (Kingston, Ont.), Kelly Setter (Keswick, Ont.), Amanda Fawns (Scarborough, Ont.), and team captain Karolina Urban (Kamloops, B.C.) were each presented with plaques acknowledging their seasons spent with the Blue and White.

The Gaels jumped out to an early lead against the Blues, scoring on the powerplay just three minutes into the opening period. Queen’s forward Brittany McHaffie poked a loose puck past Blues goaltender and Regina, Sask., native Krista Funke to put the Gaels up 1-0.

A series of powerplays quickly swung momentum back in the Blues favour, and they pressured furiously on two separate 5-on-3 opportunities late in the first but were unable to capitalize, going 0-for-7 on the man advantage for the afternoon.

They carried that momentum into even strength play to close out the first period, with Amanda Ricker (Kanata, Ont.) ringing a shot off the post before Funke made a miraculous save on a 2-on-1 chance to keep the score 1-0 Gaels heading into the second.

Funke stood tall in the middle frame as well, robbing Queen’s forward Alexandria Biglieri on a one-timer chance from the slot; one of her 22 saves of the afternoon.

But the Gaels would break through on the powerplay. With U of T killing off a 5-on-3 advantage, defencemen Katie Duncan scored on a point shot through traffic to put the Gaels up by two.

Toronto continued to battle in the third period however, with Funke making several more excellent saves to keep her team in the game, and Ricker generating a number of quality scoring chances. But the Blues were unable to put anything past Gaels goaltender Melanie Dodd-Moher, and at the other end, Taryn Pilon bounced a puck off Funke and a Blues defender and into the net to pad the Gaels lead.

U of T would call Funke to the bench for an extra-attacker with more than two minutes remaining in the game, but Dodd-Moher stopped Amanda Fawns alone in the slot to preserve the shutout.

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