Hear Them Roar

Consider me shocked. I was at work today, so I never got a chance to watch this game while it happened, but I did watch the replay when I got home because I was stunned by the outcome in Toronto today. It's not that I don't expect upsets or are shocked by a team having a bad game, but those bad games get magnified in a short three-game series. With the Nipissing Lakers losing in Game One after Emma Wedgewood's amazing performance in the net for York, it was must-win territory for the gals from North Bay. The weird part was that the game began at 11:30am at York University for some reason, so there may be a question as to whether the weird start time would affect either team when the final horn sounded on this one.

I'm fully of the belief that one wins as a team and loses as a team, and I refuse to blame any single player if a loss occurs. After all, hockey is a game of mistakes where some end up in the back of the net while others are erased from memory, but the ebbs and flows of a game through sixty minutes means there's usually enough time for teams to rally from mistakes and learn from others.

This one was, however, was a tale of two teams. Part of that could have come from the boisterous York crowd that showed up for the midday contest, but the Lions seemed to feed off that energy from warmups right through to the final horn. They took control of this game from the opening puck-drop and never looked back as they handed Nipissing a convincing second loss. What happened, you asked? Let's find out.

It only took Kaitlin Teixeira 5:36 to open the scoring when her shot appeared to be misplayed by Chantelle Sandquist as the puck went right by her outstretched glove and into the net to put the Lions up 1-0. Jillian Milligan would add another goal 2:34 later to put York up 2-0, and it was pretty clear that one team certainly had more jump than the other. With 50-plus minutes to play, though, Nipissing couldn't be counted out, and they'd get a few good chances before the period ended, but Emma Wedgewood would continue her blank-sheet effort through 20 minutes. York led 2-0 despite being outshot 16-10 in the frame.

The second period began far more evenly with both sides finding scoring chances. However, just past the midway point, Sydney Hiltz tore down the left side and wired a shot just inside the far post from the faceoff dot as it looks like Sandquist may have been slightly off on her angle, and Hiltz's goal made it 3-0 while ending Sandquist's afternoon at the 11:03 mark of the second period. Nipissing would send rookie Jordan Sladics out to the paint to take over the goaltending duties.

I'm not against coaches trying something different when they don't have a lot to lose, and Nipissing head coach Darren Turcotte decided to roll the dice later in the second period. With York down a player thanks to a penalty, Turcotte opted to pull Slavics for the extra attacker so that Nipissing had a 6-on-4 advantage. The theory is sound, but it seems it wasn't a good idea in practice as Sydney Paulson hit the empty net from just outside the Lakers' blue line, pushing the score to 4-0 with her shorthanded marker at 17:25. To make matters worse, York would take another penalty, and the Nipissing power-play would score on the 5-on-3 when Maggie McKee beat Wedgewood at 18:07, ending Wedgewood's shutout streak at 112:19 in this series. The period would close with York leading 4-1 despite Nipissing nearly doubling York's shots at a 29-15 rate.

Whatever was said in the room by head coach Dan Church seemed to make the Lions invincible as they blitzed the Lakers from the opening face-off. It would pay off 82 seconds into the third period as Alexa Giantsopoulos dented twine which may have killed any hope that Nipissing had of a miracle comeback. Lola Massey would drive a final nail into the Nipissing Lakers' season at 8:30 when she scored on the power-play, and the 6-1 lead was more than necessary for Emma Wedgewood to hold the fort through the remaining 11:30 as York Lions eliminated the seventh-ranked Nipissing Lakers from the OUA Playoffs with an emphatic 6-1 victory in Game Two.

York's victory has bigger meaning that just an upset of one of the top OUA teams. It also means that Nipissing is the first nationally-ranked Top-Ten team to fall in their quest to appear at the U SPORTS National Women's Hockey Championship. If you're a reader of this blog, you know how much I dislike the national ranking system that U SPORTS uses, and there is absolutely zero proof the system is valid in its rankings in any way. The one thing we do know right now is that the 22-4-2 nationally-ranked seventh-seeded team will be watching Nationals from home while an 8-17-1-3 sits two wins away from a berth at the tournament in Saskatoon.

York just did the unthinkable in defeating the Nipissing Lakers, but, as I wrote on Wednesday, "York was well-equipped for this series against Nipissing" as they went 1-1-1-1 against the Lakers. As much as this was an upset on paper, these two teams were far closer than their records indicated, and the 3-1-1-1 record that York now boasts against Nipissing this season proves that nothing will be given and everything has to be earned.

For Nipissing, there will be questions that will go unanswered after it seemed like they may be a favorite to grab one of the two OUA berths at the U SPORTS National Championship. Instead, the "what-ifs" will echo for a while on an opportunity lost while scoring just one goal in 134 minutes of play. If there was any time that the Lakers needed their scorers to come alive, this week was it.

My congratulations go out to the York Lions on their victory, and they now await the winner of the series between Toronto and Queen's as their semifinal opponent. If they can continue to ride this momentum into their next series, we might be talking about York's second-ever appearance at the National Championship after their first appearance ended without a result thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic forcing the cancellation of the event in Charlottetown, PEI in 2020.

My guess? They'll want to write their own history this time!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!