By Hayden Godfrey
In perhaps the team’s most thrilling game of the season, the Ryerson Rams women’s hockey team came back from a two-goal deficit in the third period to beat the York Lions by a score of 3-2 in overtime on Nov. 23 at the Mattamy Athletic Centre.
Led valiantly by the red-hot Rachel Seeley in net, the Rams didn’t back down and showed intense perseverance, ultimately stealing a victory from their crosstown rivals.
With less than two minutes remaining in the third, Olivia Giardetti, one of the team’s most valuable forwards so far this season, tied things up in spectacular fashion, potting in her fourth of the season to send it to overtime.
In a rapid and intense overtime period, forward Lauren Nicholson played the hero and wired her second of the game to send her team into hysterics on their bench.
“It’s a fun game to play when it’s physical, and we all believed in ourselves on the bench,” said Nicholson. “No one had any doubt that we’d be able to come back.”
Ryerson extends their streak to six games with the win while also defeating York for the first time this season.
In the first frame, Lions forward Courtney Gardiner came flying down the right-wing and narrowly wristed a shot over the shoulder of Seeley, giving her team the lead.
Though York led by just a single goal after 20 minutes, they outshot the Rams 16-5, leading Rams head coach Lisa Haley to stress to her team the importance of starting on time.
“York is a team that comes flying through the gates. They’re a good quality team,” said Haley. “We’d been getting some great looks and things sort of came together quite nicely.”
Ryerson’s power-play struggled heavily in the afternoon with ample opportunities but weren’t able to put together cohesive and powerful drives. At one point, the Rams had a two-man advantage for almost 90 seconds and mustered only a few shots on net.
Midway through the third, the Lions extended their lead when forward Taylor Davison beat Seeley with a backhand shot on the short side. Five minutes later, the Rams got themselves back in it when captain Kryshanda Green set up Nicholson, who wired wrister by York netminder Lauren Dubie to bring her team within one.
“For us, if we’re taking hard work penalties, we feel good. I didn’t feel that we took selfish or retaliatory penalties,” said Haley. “I’m fully proud of my team and the way they played today.”
UP NEXT: The Rams will take a short bus ride to Waterloo to face off against the Warriors on Nov. 28 at 7:00 p.m.
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