By Juliana Kedzior Kaminski
Ryerson’s women’s hockey team took home a big win Thursday night against the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) with a 5-2 win, moving the Rams up to fourth place in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) standings.
UOIT jumped out to an early lead over the Rams with a first period goal, and with captain Ailish Forfar absent due to injury, Ryerson had to fight back harder than ever.
So that’s exactly what they did, and it was due to forward Lauren Nicholson, who was the star of the night.
Nicholson scored her first hat-trick of her Rams career, with two of her goals scored just minutes apart in the second period. Forwards Emma Low-A-Chee and Sarah McGilvray scored the other two goals to lead Ryerson to the win.
“It’s great. It’s always good to contribute offensively. My linemates played a big part in it. I haven’t scored in a few games so it’s nice to finally put one in the net,” said Nicholson.
Ryerson goalkeeper Fanny Vigeant came out strong for her team in just her second game of the season.
“I was a little bit rusty at first but I think after my first game I was already feeling better,” said Vigeant.
But while Vigeant gave a strong performance, it was Nicholson’s that had the crowd truly buzzing.
Rams head coach Lisa Haley said that Nicholson has been working hard this past year, and that effort paid off on Thursday.
“She’s been working on trying to find ways to change the angle enough to get it through and tonight was the night that it finally started to pay off… I’m looking forward to see what happens next,” said Haley.
Having scored three of the five goals, Nicholson expects to play at a high level when the team takes on the Guelph Gryphons, an OUA powerhouse.
Not only is Guelph the Rams’ last opponent of the regular season, but the Gryphons could also be a playoff enemy.
“For us it’s just trying to get those playoff habits in place, if we could get the [win] that’s awesome,” said Haley.
Guelph currently sits third in the OUA standings with Ryerson trailing just slightly behind in fourth place.
With the playoffs on the way, Ryerson is hoping that they get home ice advantage.
“I think it would be huge. We play really well at home, but either way we’re going to do hopefully pretty well,” said Nicholson.
UP NEXT: The Ryerson Rams will take on the Guelph Gryphons on Feb. 17 at the Mattamy Athletic Centre. Puck drop is scheduled at 2:15 p.m.
Leave a Reply