TORONTO – Despite a flurry of goals, an early two-goal deficit was too much to come back from for the Ryerson Rams women's hockey team as they fell 6-4 to the No. 4 Toronto Varsity Blues on Thursday morning.

In an early 11:00 a.m. puck drop, the Rams got into some early penalty trouble which gave early momentum to the Blues. Despite not scoring on their first two power play opportunities, Toronto dominated possession and outshot the Rams handily.

Later in the first, during four-on-four play, Toronto opened the scoring with 6:19 to play. The Blues quickly doubled that lead with another four-on-four tally to take a 2-0 lead into the dressing room after 20 minutes.

Ryerson managed to regroup during the intermission and came out aggressive to start the second which earned them a power play. The Rams moved the puck well to break down Toronto's penalty kill shape, and a slap shot one-timer from Lauren Nicholson (Dresden, Ont.) put Ryerson on the board just 2:25 into the period.

The Rams special teams came up with another big play just 1:24 later as Nicholson found herself with a short handed breakaway off the left wing and made a nifty move to lift the puck over Toronto goalie Erica Fryer to tie the game at 2-2.

In a high-scoring second period, Toronto responded with a pair of goals of their own to retake the lead and own a 4-2 advantage over the Rams at the second intermission.

As well as Ryerson started the second period, it was Toronto who had the jump to start the third as Blues captain Stephanie Ayres scored just eight seconds into the period off the opening faceoff. 

Now fighting a three-goal deficit, the Rams put in some hard work and were rewarded when Karli Nummikoski (Thunder Bay, Ont.) was left alone in front and she tipped home an Avery Horlock (Pickering, Ont.) wrist shot to make it a 5-3 game.

About two minutes later, Nicholson completed her hat trick with her third goal of the game to bring the Rams within one.

That was as close as they would come, however, as Toronto tacked on a sixth goal and Ryerson couldn't find an equalizer to fall 6-4.

The Rams special teams outperformed the Blues, as Ryerson went 5-for-5 on the penalty kill and also converted once on the power play and scored once shorthanded.

Thursday's game was Ryerson's only game of the week as they will now break until Friday, January 31 for their next game when they host Guelph at the Mattamy Athletic Centre.