TORONTO – The Toronto Metropolitan Univesity (TMU) Bold women's hockey team lost 4-2 to the Toronto Varsity Blues on Saturday afternoon at the Mattamy Athletic Centre falling in their best-of-three series.
An Emma Potter tally with less than five minutes left in the third period stood as the game-winner, as for the second straight game the Bold pushed the second-ranked team in the country to the brink. Yet, they fell just short once again.
"It's definitely unfortunate," said fifth-year forward Brooklyn Gemmill, who played in her final game as a member of the Bold. "They're number two in the country for a reason and we had them on the ropes there, so it's a tough pill to swallow."
"I think [for] anybody watching either one of those games it would have been hard to tell who was ranked second in the country," said an emotional Bold head coach Lisa Haley. "Proud of our effort and thought we played our best hockey when we needed it most. At the end of the day, that's what you want to try to do and [you] hope that it gets you a win, but we came up short."
Caroline Eagles opened the scoring for the Blues with a seeing-eye shot from the point that beat first-year Bold goaltender Lauren Griffin.
Shortly after, second-year forward Payton Kerr put the Bold on the board to tie things up. The Varna, Ont., product roofed a shot past Blues netminder Madeline Albert following a dish pass from behind the goal from second-year forward Brooke Michaud.
The Blues regained the lead less than two minutes later with a marker from Lauren MacDonnell. The Blues forward narrowly squeaked one past Griffin to make it 2-1 Blues — a lead that held into the second.
Midway through the middle frame, both sides found themselves in penalty trouble. First, Blues defenceman Olivia Hilton was given a double minor for head contact. However, five seconds into the Bold powerplay fifth-year forward and team captain Madison Lalonde was issued a five-minute major and a game misconduct for a check-from-behind on Blues defenceman Madelyn Walsh.
"[Lalonde] ended up confessing that when she thought she was retiring in the last game of her minor hockey career, she got kicked out. I was like 'Maddie, I wish you had told me that before today,'" said Haley with a chuckle.
"What Maddie has done over the course of her six years here is a hell of a lot more than not being able to play in the last 20 minutes," added the Bold bench boss.
The Bold escaped the five-minute penalty unscathed — resulting in a shift of momentum. With 15 seconds remaining in the period, Gemmill — who left midway through the first game of the series with an injury — carried the puck through the neutral zone and floated a shot on goal that beat Albert to level it up.
"The second half of the season was tough. I knew the ending was near and I'm glad I could do something out there," said Gemmill.
Heading into another tight third period, both teams pushed for the go-ahead goal. Despite the Bold striking three goal posts, Toronto found the back of the net first as Potter capitalized to restore the Blues' lead on the powerplay.
"Well, I'm going to ask the facility guys to put a couple more coats of paint on the goalposts, so that goes post-and-in instead of post-and-out. I think we were that close," said Haley with a smile. "A lot of confidence in our group. I think we really believed in ourselves."
The Blues added another into the empty net for the insurance marker as Kaitlyn McKnight scored her second of the series to wrap up the game and advance the Blues into the OUA semi-final.
"It doesn't make it any less sad, but I think you can live with the performance when you know you did everything in your control to try to win and walk away with whatever the results may be," said Haley.
"I think the only thing is that I gave everything that I had out there and I'm comfortable leaving on that note," added Gemmill.
