Charette earns her first career shutout in a 1-0 UOIT victory

OUA Women's Hockey: UOIT defeated Ryerson 1-0

OSHAWA, Ont. – The UOIT Ridgebacks women's hockey team picked up a 1-0 shutout victory over the Ryerson Rams Sunday afternoon at the Campus Ice Centre.

UOIT goaltender Cassie Charette (Ottawa, Ont.) stopped all 30 Ryerson shots including 11 in the third period to earn her first career shutout. In six games this season, Charette has posted a 2.43 goals against average with a .914 save percentage.

The Ridgebacks wasted no time getting on the board as Jaclyn Gibson (Cobourg, Ont.) scored off her own rebound 27 seconds into the game. Melissa Berney (Bowmanville, Ont.) and Sam Forchielli (Hamilton, Ont.) picked up assists on Gibson's seventh goal of the year. UOIT would continue to apply a lot pressure over the next 20 minutes outshooting Ryerson 13-5, but Rams goaltender Emma Crawley would stand on her head making several highlight reel saves to keep the Rams within one goal.

The teams reversed roles in the second period as Ryerson generated several scoring chances off of Ridgeback turnovers. Fortunately for UOIT, Charette was a wall in net as she made 14 saves in the period to preserve the one goal lead.

In the third period, Ryerson continued to fire everything they could Charette's way as they outshot UOIT 11-3. Their best chance came with their net empty and one minute left on the clock, as a couple of Ryerson forwards crashed the crease but Charette was able to stick out her left pad to make the save and cover up the rebound. The Ridgebacks were able to hold off the Ryerson charge for the final minute of the game as they skated off with the one goal victory.

Both penalty-killing units were perfect as the Ridgebacks fought off five power plays and Ryerson was able to defend three.

With the win, UOIT climbs up in to fifth place in the OUA standings with an 8-5-1 record, two points behind the Toronto Varsity Blues. Ryerson sits in ninth place at 5-8-0.

The Ridgebacks will close out the 2013 portion of their schedule next weekend when they head to Waterloo (Saturday) and Laurier (Sunday).

A QUICK LOOK AT THE RIDGEBACKS
Overall Record: 12-6-1
Conference Record: 8-5-1

Next Game: Sat. Nov. 30 @ Waterloo (2 p.m.)