The No. 4 University of Toronto Varsity Blues women's hockey team fell to the Wilfred Laurier Golden Hawks 3-2 in a shootout in their second annual pride game at Varsity Arena on Friday night (Jan 10).
 
HOW IT HAPPENED: Each team got into penalty trouble early, giving their opposition a chance to take an early lead. Nicole Shaw found the back of the net on one of those opportunities to give the Golden Hawks the lead. As the period progressed, each team got a little more physical. The period would end with Laurier scoring the only goal.
 
The Blues continued to play physical and stay strong on the puck. This would pay off when Breanna Berndsen buried her fifth goal of the season just before the halfway point of the game. The Golden Hawks continued to apply pressure but third year goalie Madeline Albert came up with some big saves to keep Toronto in it. In the dying seconds of the frame, Madelyn Walsh tipped in a Cristine Chao shot to give the Blues the lead with 1.3 seconds left in the period.
 
The Blues took another early penalty in the third and it would cost them. Kaitlin Saxton scored for Laurier to tie the game up at two. Golden Hawks goalie Cohen Myers and Albert both had to come up with timely saves to keep their team alive. The game remained tied after 60 minutes of play, so it headed to seven minutes of 3-on-3 overtime.
 
Albert and Myers came up big again in overtime, stopping breakaway opportunities that could have ended the match. Overtime was unable to solve anything, meaning the game was headed into a shootout. In the shootout, no team was able to beat a goalie until the fifth round. Chloe Saxton potted it five hole on Albert, forcing U of T to score to continue. Blues shooter Adrianna Noble was stopped thus solidifying the Hawks victory.
 
Albert made 29 saves plus four in the shootout in the losing effort.
 
UP NEXT: The Blues battle the York Lions tomorrow at Canlan Ice Sports at 2:15pm.

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