LONDON, Ont. – The University of Toronto Varsity Blues defeated the Western Mustangs 2-1 in game three of the OUA semi-final Saturday afternoon at Thompson Arena.
"Actually, it's heartbreaking. I mean, these girls battled hard all season," said Mustangs' head coach Candice Moxley. "I thought they deserved more than the outcome they saw today, but unfortunately you win some, you lose some."
Western's lone goal was scored by Sydnee Baker. Toronto's offence was provided by Jessica Robichaud and Julia Szulewska.
In the first frame, the Mustangs displayed a tighter penalty kill than their last home game against the Varsity Blues. They made three full-ice clears during their first penalty and only allowed one shot on netminder Carmen Lasis.
"Collectively, we did phenomenal. We couldn't ask more of our penalty killers," said Baker. "I had a few opportunities to block some shots, and so did my other teammates, and we got the job done in that sense."
Toronto then had two back-to-back penalties, but they also kept had an aggressive defence, and Western could not capitalize on their four-minute one player advantage. Neither team would score in the first period, and the Mustangs only outshot the Varsity Blues 7-6.
Two and a half minutes into the second, April Clark stole the puck from a Toronto defender at the blue line and skated to the net. She did not make it on the scoreboard, however, as her shot went wide.
A couple minutes later, the Varsity Blues led the shot count 3-1 and were spending a lot of time in the Mustangs' defensive zone. Their defence kept the puck inside the blue line as Western struggled to break out.
Halfway through the second frame, Robichaud received a pass from Stephanie Ayres and fired a one-timer through traffic and Lasis' five-hole to mark the first goal of the game for Toronto.
Western responded on the power play with three minutes left in the period. Baker was sitting in front of the net and was fed the puck from Clark who was down low. Her shot over Erica Fryer's pads tied the score up 1-1, and the period ended with nine Varsity Blue shots to the Mustangs' eight.
"You try and find the soft spots," said Baker. "They cover pretty man-on-man, so spots like that will be open—you've just got to find the net."
Four minutes into the final frame, Western was outshooting Toronto 3-0 to try and break the tie. The Varsity Blues bounced back, however, and shots were tied 4-4 13 minutes later.
With seven minutes of play left, Toronto scored on their fifth shot of the period. Louie Bieman shot the puck through the crease to Szulewska, who fired it to the far side of the net just behind the post.
The Mustangs pulled Lasis with a minute and a half to go, and although they outshot Toronto 8-5 in the final frame, they could not generate any offence, and the game ended with a 2-1 victory for the Varsity Blues.
"This was a phenomenal year for me. Coming in to this program, stepping in and having a group of girls as good as what we have in terms of personality, character, players in our locker room, I mean, they're fantastic," said Moxley. "I mean, if you look at our season from a whole, and you step away from it, step away from this game, I think we had a great season. Finishing second in this league with the competitiveness that's there I think is something to be said, something to hang our hat on, and something to build on for the future. There's a lot of good things that happened this season, but unfortunately that loss is going to sting a little bit. But hopefully all the returners will have that to fuel their fire coming in next year."
Toronto will continue on to compete for the McCaw Cup and then attend nationals at the University of Prince Edward Island, but this afternoon's defeat was the Mustangs' last game of the 2018-2019 season. They will return to the ice in September.
