TORONTO - Despite a late push and a goal from Erika Crouse, the Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) Bold women's hockey team lost 4-1 against the Toronto Varsity Blues on Friday night at the Mattamy Athletic Centre.

This was the first edition of this year's crosstown rivalry. The Bold were coming off a loss to the Nipissing Lakers last Saturday, on the other hand, the Blues entered the game with a 1-1-0-0 record after a back-to-back versus the Waterloo Warriors and the Brock Badgers last week.   

Tonight's matchup was a penalty-filled affair as both teams had parades to the box. The blue and gold finished the game with four power play opportunities. Meanwhile, the Blues had eight, including one 5-on-3. 

"We didn't adjust to the way the game was being called," said Bold head coach, Lisa Haley. 

In the first, both squads' power play units had looks, but neither was able to capitalize and the period remained tied heading into the intermission. 

However, the middle frame differed. The Blues scored the opener with 14:09 left in the period. After multiple Bold penalties, Lauren McDonnell squeaked one past netminder Jayden Lawson to make it 1-0. Less than five minutes later, Abby Howland doubled the Blues' lead with a wrist shot from the left faceoff dot.  

"We just didn't have enough fight in our game to give them much of a challenge," added Haley.

Despite the deficit, the Bold looked to respond in the third period. Nonetheless, the Blues added another to make it 3-0 early in the frame after Kaitlyn McKnight was found alone in front of Lawson. 

"The first ten minutes of the third were a little sloppy just like the second," said Bold goal scorer Crouse. 

In the latter stages of the final 20, the Bold's intensity ramped up as they were looking to put one on the board. With 7:49 left in the period, Crouse rifled one past Erica Fryer to make the hole two.  

"I think the goal got us fired up a bit," said Crouse. 

ERIKA CROUSE ??

The fourth-year forward's first of the year is an absolute beauty — we're on the board in the third! pic.twitter.com/2iT5v8S0lN

— TMU Bold Women's Hockey (@tmuboldwhky) October 28, 2022

Regardless of the pushback, the Blues lead held and added a fourth with the Bold net empty. "If we play like we did in the last ten minutes then we'll be fine," said Crouse.  

TMU is now in search of a bounce-back victory as they look ahead to Saturday's game against the Windsor Lancers. This is the first time the Bold are welcoming the Lancers since the 2019-20 season due to COVID-19 restrictions. The last time the two teams faced off was Feb. 14, 2020. Puck drop is set for 5:15 p.m at the Mattamy Athletic Centre. 

"We're definitely going to be focused on ourselves," said Haley. "We really have a lot of things to address in our game and get back to the way we want to play. It'll be fun to play a team we haven't seen in a while, but otherwise, we got to put the work boots on."