The St. Thomas University women’s hockey team lost their two games during the USPORT women’s hockey national championship tournament after facing a 10-2 loss against McGill University on March 15 and a 2-1 loss against the University of Toronto Varsity Blues on March 16.
The Tommies won the Atlantic University Sport Championships on March 7 after winning a best-of-three series against St. Francis Xavier University. They lost the first game of the series 4-0, but won the second game 4-3 and the third game 2-1, allowing them to advance to the USPORT Nationals hosted by the University of Prince Edward Island.
After a decent fight, the McGill Martlets managed to sneak one past goalie Abby Clarke seven minutes into the first period.
Lauren Henman responded with a goal three minutes later with an assist from captain Emily Oleksuk, tying the game 1-1.
Five minutes later McGill scored on a power play. They scored again on the same power play shortly after, giving them a 3-1 lead at the end of the first period.
McGill was quick to score in the second period just four minutes in, followed by another goal six minutes later on a power play.
Tommie Megan Pardy scored just moments later on their own power play, making the score 5-2.
McGill responded with two back-to-back goals with seven minutes left in the period, and a third goal four minutes later, making the score 8-2 at the end of the second period.
The Tommies held the Martlets back during the third period and Clarke prevented them from scoring for the first half of the period, but they got one past the Tommies 10 minutes into the period, making the score 9-2.
With less than five minutes left in the game, McGill scored again on a breakaway, making the final score 10-2.
The Tommies played a consolation game against the Varsity Blues on March 16, losing 2-1.
The game started with a power play for the Varsity Blues 15 seconds into the game, but they couldn’t get past Clarke.
The penalties continued to rack up in the period with nine in total, six of them going to the Tommies.
With less than a minute left, the Varsity Blues got one past Clarke. Tommie Alex Woods answered with a goal of her own 30 seconds later, tying the game 1-1 at the end of the period.
Both teams continued to fight for the lead in the second period. With eight minutes left in the period, the Varsity Blues scored another goal, giving them a 2-1 lead. They kept that lead for the rest of the period.
Despite their two power play opportunities, the Tommies couldn’t tie up the game in the third period. They pulled Clarke with less than two minutes left in the period hoping to tie it up, but couldn’t get the goal, giving the Varsity Blues the 2-1 win.
Fourth-year player Kristina Kocsis said she was happy to have this experience with the team in her final year as a Tommie.
“I thought we really represented the school well by fighting through both games and competing on such a large stage,” Kocsis said in a Facebook message.
“It was great to see all of the girls playing for each other and for all of our amazing fans that made the trip to watch.”
