Three quick goals bury the Ridgebacks


OUA Women's Hockey: Guelph defeated UOIT 4-2

OSHAWA, Ont. – After playing arguably the best 40 minutes of their season in the first two periods on Sunday, the UOIT women's hockey team allowed three goal less than two minutes apart in the third frame as the No. 3 ranked Guelph Gryphons earned a 4-2 comeback victory.

With two losses to close out their regular season, the Ridgebacks (13-10-1) fall to seventh place and will match up against the No. 4 ranked Laurier Golden Hawks (18-3-3) in the OUA quarter finals. Game one will take place on Wednesday night in Waterloo with game two scheduled for Saturday, February 15 at the Campus Ice Centre with a 7:30 p.m. start time.

Prior to the game, UOIT honoured their graduating seniors that included Katie Dillon (Oshawa, Ont.), Sarah Worthington (Whitby, Ont.), Violette Long (Oshawa, Ont.), Jaclyn Gibson (Cobourg, Ont.) and Jill Morillo (Whitby, Ont.).

The Ridgebacks seemed to feed off the emotion of playing in their final regular season home game as they outshot Guelph 22-14 over the opening forty minutes. Their hard work would eventually pay off as Melissa Berney (Bowmanville, Ont.) scored from the point midway through the second period to put UOIT ahead 1-0. Worthington and Victoria MacKenzie (Toronto, Ont.) picked up assists on Berney's fourth goal of the year.

Three minutes into the third period, Kimberley Wong would start the Gryphon rally as she netted her first goal of the year. Marcie Landman and Averi Nooren would follow that up with back-to-back goals 16 seconds apart to put Guelph ahead 3-1.

UOIT would show a lot of fight to get back into the game as Dillon scored three minutes after the Guelph onslaught to cut into the lead to one, but Nooren would eventually score an empty net marker to double-up the Ridgebacks.

CIS Academic All-Canadian Cassie Charette got the start in net for UOIT and made 17 saves in the losing effort. Oshawa native Stephanie Nehring was in goal for Guelph and she stopped 25 Ridgeback shots for her league leading 19th win of the year.

The Ridgebacks set program highs in 2013-14 for the most wins (13) and points (27) in a season, breaking the mark set last season.

Gibson and Morillo, who assisted on Dillon's goal, finish in the top 15 of league scoring with 25 and 22 points respectively while Berney ends up sixth in OUA defensive scoring. With 14 goals on the year, Morillo finishes her career with 64, the fifth highest total in the history of OUA women's hockey.

UOIT will be looking to win their first-ever playoff series in program history next week against the Golden Hawks. Last year, UOIT was eliminated in double-overtime of the quarter finals against the Gryphons.

A QUICK LOOK AT THE RIDGEBACKS
Overall Record: 17-11-1
Conference Record: 13-10-1

OUA Quarter Finals – UOIT vs. Laurier
Game One – Wed. Feb. 12 @ Laurier
Game Two – Sat. Feb. 15 @ UOIT (7:30 p.m.)
Game Three – Sun. Feb. 16 @ Laurier *If Necessary