By Justin Walters
While missing some of their key players, the Ryerson Rams women’s hockey team were narrowly defeated 3-2 by the Toronto Varsity Blues at the Mattamy Athletic Centre on Sept. 14.
It was the second game of exhibition play for the Rams, as they were coming off a 3-2 overtime loss last night against the Montréal Carabins.
Despite going 0-2 this weekend, Ryerson’s head coach Lisa Haley wasn’t concerned about the results of the game, but more interested in experimenting with her lineups in preparation for the regular season in October.
“We are very focused on the process rather than the outcome,” said Haley post-game. “Exhibition games give us a chance to work on certain things in certain situations that will help us be more successful when the games actually start to count.”
Ryerson opened the scoring late in the first period, thanks to first-year forward Emily Baxter tapping in her own rebound as she scored her first-ever goal in a Rams uniform.
“I was able to intercept the breakout pass and after I took the first shot, the puck came right back to me and this time the puck trickled in past the line, it was a pretty cool feeling,” said Baxter.
The Rams took a penalty while on the power-play on two separate occasions in this game. Coach Haley admitted that discipline wasn’t their strong point last season as they were short-handed more times than any other team in the province.
Toronto responded with three unanswered goals as they started to dominate the shots on net, outshooting the Rams 25-12 through two periods.
Baxter said that the reason Toronto dominating was because of their ability to stop Ryerson from having any puck control through the middle of the ice.
“They kept us to the outside and were physical on the puck when we tried to make a play through the middle.”
The Rams made it a one-goal game with under five minutes left in the third period after a power-play goal by forward Brooklyn Gemmill.
But that was all they could get as Toronto kept it together defensively to escape with a 3-2 win as the final buzzer sounded.
UP NEXT: The Rams will have a home-and-home series next weekend against the York Lions
Leave a Reply