Emily Goodwin | Editor-in-Chief
Featured Image: The Lions celebrate a goal during last Wednesday’s game. | Courtesy of Jojo Yanjiao Qian/York Lions
The women’s hockey team has advanced to the second round of playoffs after winning their opening round series over the Waterloo Warriors 2-0.
The Lions hosted game one on Wednesday, February 19, and they put on a show for their home crowd. After a quiet first period, the Lions scored four times in the second period. Kara Washer put in the Lions’ first goal three minutes in with the assistance of Taylor Coward.
The Lions then scored three more back-to-back goals starting at the 10 minute mark with Ava Ricker-Singh finding her way past the Warriors’ goaltender Mikayla Schnarr off passes from Julia McLennan and Erin Locke.
Sarah Power and Becky Higgs scored less than a minute from each other. Kelsey McHolm and Courtney Gardiner assisted Power, while Ilena Ricker-Singh and McLennan assisted Higgs.
At the end of the second period, Cynthia Cavanagh of the Warriors was able to get past Lions goaltender Serena Vilde to put the Warriors on the scoreboard. Her teammates Trisha Cho and Courtney Simpson assisted on her goal.
The Lions added a fifth goal at the end of the final period when the Warriors pulled their goalie. Higgs scored this final goal for the Lions, while Davison picked up her first assist of the game. This brought the final score to 5-1 and gave the Lions a 1-0 lead in the series.
Two days later, they travelled down to Waterloo looking to finish off the series with another win. The Warriors put up more of a fight this time around, only allowing the Lions to score three times.
Washer once again got the Lions on the scoreboard first with her goal 30 seconds into the first period. Power assisted on this goal.
The second period remained scoreless for both teams. In the third period, Davison capitalized on a power play and added the Lions second point with the help of Gardiner and McHolm.
To cap off the game, the Lions once again scored on an empty Warriors net. This time it was Gardiner who recorded the Lions final point, while McHolm picked up her third assist of the series.
Despite taking a total of 22 shots on the Lions’ net, the Warriors could not get the puck past Vilde, and Vilde skated off with a clean sheet win.
The Lions will hit the road for the first game of their semi-final series against the Nippissing Lakers. The Lakers came into playoffs ranked one spot higher than the Lions, and also swept their quarter final series against the Queen’s Gaels.
Game one is scheduled for tomorrow Thursday, February 27 at 7:00 p.m. and can be live streamed from oua.tv. The Lions return to Canlan Ice Sports on Saturday, February 29 at 2:15 p.m. for game two.
If a tie breaking game is necessary, the Lions will head back to North Bay for a third game on Sunday, March 1.
