The No. 6 seeded University of Toronto Varsity Blues women's hockey team fell 3-1 to the No. 1 Concordia Stingers to earn the silver medal at the 2024 GFL U SPORTS women's hockey championship, presented by Connect Energy, at Merlis Belsher Place in Saskatoon, Sask.

The Blues, who entered the tournament as the No. 6 seed, defeated the No. 3 UNB Reds 2-1 in quarter-final action, before punching their ticket to their first final since 2002-03 with a thrilling 2-1 shootout victory over the No. 7 Montreal Carabins in the semifinals.

The silver-medal finish marks Toronto's sixth national medal (one gold, three silver, two bronze) since the championship inauguration in 1997-98, and the Blues best finish since 2002-03. 

"We'll remember this for a long time," Varsity Blues head coach Vicky Sunohara said. "It's been such a challenging season and to qualify out of the OUA was huge for us and to win our quarterfinal game the way we did, it was a very tight game, the semifinal game, and to get an opportunity to compete in a gold medal game is super special for our program."

The Blues brought their best effort from the get go but it was the Stingers who found the back of the net first as Emilie Lussier picked up her third goal of the tournament to make it 1-0. Concordia picked up another goal courtesy of Jesseymaude Drapeau and the Blues went into intermission down by two goals.

In the second period the Blues game continued to improve as fifth-year goalie Erica Fryer made some of the best of her 22 saves in the game, including a pad save where she stretched across her crease in the late stages of the middle frame to keep the Blues in the hockey game.

In the third period Concordia's Rosalie Begin-Cyr added to their lead but the Blues didn't give up. As they continued to battle until the very end, third-year defender Emma Potter's shot made its way through traffic and into the back of the net to cut the deficit to two goals.

Toronto kept pushing but as the final buzzer sounded the Blues fell 3-1 to the Stingers.

Tournament MVP: Jessymaude Drapeau - Concordia

Nike Team Players of the Game:
Concordia: Rosalie Bégin-Cyr
Toronto: Emma Potter

Tournament all-stars:
Forward- Ashley Delahey - Toronto
Forward- Jessymaude Drapeau – Concordia 
Forward- Tatum James - Waterloo
Defence – Jade Picard - Montreal
Defence- Léonie Philbert - Concordia
Goaltender – Jordyn Verbeek - Concordia
 
2024 GFL U SPORTS women's hockey championship, presented by Connect Energy
Merlis Belsher Place (Saskatoon, Sask.)
 
Thursday, March 14
Quarter-Final #1: Waterloo 6, StFX 1
Quarter-Final #2: Concordia 4, Saskatchewan 0
 
Friday, March 15
Quarter-Final #3: Montreal 4, UBC 2
Quarter-Final #4: Toronto 2, UNB 1
 
Saturday, March 16
Consolation Semifinal #1: Saskatchewan 3, StFX 1
Consolation Semifinal #2: UBC 4, UNB 0
Semifinal #1: Concordia 3, Waterloo 1
Semifinal #2: Toronto 2, Montreal 1 (SO)
 
Sunday, March 17
Consolation Final: UBC 3, Saskatchewan 1
Bronze Medal: Montreal 2, Waterloo 1 (SO)
Gold Medal: Toronto 1, Concordia 3