The No. 2 seed University of Toronto Varsity Blues women's hockey team defeated the No. 7 seed UNB REDS 2-0 at the Woolwich Memorial Centre in Elmira, Ont., in the quarter-finals of the 2025 Miller Waste U SPORTS Championship on Friday (Mar. 21) night.
 
With the win, the Blues advance to the semifinals of the national championship tournament where they will take on the Bishop's Gaiters on Saturday (Mar. 22) night at 7 p.m.
 
"We played hard, we played physical – I think we played good blue collar hockey. We stuck to our game plan, we knew what we had to do and didn't change anything," said Scout Watkins-Southward. The fifth-year forward earned player of the game honours with a goal and an assist.
 
Both teams came out flying from the moment the puck was dropped with high quality scoring chances at both ends of the ice. Despite the Blues holding a 13-4 shot advantage, UNB's Cassie McCallum and first-year Blues goaltender Lyla McKinnon kept the game scoreless after 20 minutes of play.
 
In the second period the Blues continued to pile on the shots, extending their advantage to 26-9. With less than two minutes remaining in the second period, second-year forward Christina Alexiou sent a pass across the slot to Watkins-Southward, who found the back of the net to break the ice and give U of T a 1-0 lead that they brought into the second intermission.
 
The Blues were able to keep their foot on the gas in the third period, while a big glove save from McKinnon on a UNB rush kept Toronto ahead 1-0. The Blues doubled their lead midway through the third period as Alexiou and Watkins-Southward got on the scoresheet for a second time, setting up third-year defender Madison Tiro to give U of T a 2-0 lead.
 
U of T kept the puck in the offensive zone and hemmed the REDS in their own end as the period wore on. The Blues they kept getting quality chances on McCallum, limiting UNB's ability to get back in the game. Toronto celebrated at the final horn as they clinched a semifinal berth.

McKinnon turned aside all 13 shots she faced to record a shutout in her U SPORTS national championship debut, continuing her strong play from the OUA playoffs.
 
"We settled into the game and we're pretty happy with the performance," said Blues women's hockey head coach Vicky Sunohara. "We played probably as close to 60 minutes as we have this season and that's what we need to continue to do."
 
The Blues will take on the Bishop's Gaiters on Saturday, Mar. 22. Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m. The game will be streamed on CBC Sports digital platforms and live stats can be found here.

Schedule:

Thursday, March 20
Quarter-Final #1: Concordia 5, StFX 2
Quarter-Final #2: Waterloo 3, Alberta 0

Friday, March 21
Quarter-Final #3: Bishop's 4, UBC 3 (OT)
Quarter-Final #4: Toronto 2, UNB 0

Saturday, March 22
Consolation Semifinal #1: No. 1 Alberta vs. No. 4 StFx | 10:00 a.m.
Consolation Semifinal #2: No. 6 UBC vs. No. 7 UNB | 1:00 p.m.
Semfinal #1: No. 5 Concordia vs. No. 8 Waterloo | 4:00 p.m.
Semfinal #2: No. 2 Toronto vs. No. 3 Bishop's | 7:00 p.m.

Sunday, March 23
Consolation Final: 10:00 a.m.
Bronze-Medal Game: 2:00 p.m.
Gold-Medal Game: 6:00 p.m.