WINDSOR, Ont.- Fourth-year senior Candice Chevalier earned a hat-trick, and the Windsor Lancers women's hockey team continued its impressive play in the New Year on Friday evening at South Windsor Arena, earning a hard-fought 4-2 victory over a perennial OUA heavyweight and current CIS No. 4 seed Laurier Golden Hawks.

Saturday is Hats on for Healthcare Day at South Windsor Arena. During the women's game against Waterloo and the men's hockey game at 7:30 p.m. against Toronto, Lancer fans are encouraged to wear goofy hats in support of Windsor Regional Hospital. Fans can also make a donation to support the hospital, and there will be pizza available for purchase throughout each of these select events.

The Lancers (13-8-2) handed Laurier (17-3-3) just its third first regulation loss of the season and its first in over three months, as the Golden Hawks last fell in a 60-minute contest on October 23 against the Guelph Gryphons. The guests had taken at least a point in each of the last 16 games, but had that streak come to a halt thanks to Chevalier and an impressive 29-save performance by rookie netminder Marissa Kozovski.

After entering the first intermission at a scoreless stalemate, both sides notched a pair of goals in the middle frame. Veteran Jenny MacKnight scored her team-leading 15th goal of the season to bring the women even after Laurier opened the scoring earlier in the second. Just over three minutes later, Chevalier knocked in her first of three on the night to put the hosts out in front. The lead was short-lived, as the Golden Hawks answered exactly one minute later, and the score remained 2-2 heading into the final period.

The Essex, Ont. native tallied her second marker of the game on a pretty wrap-around at the 5:53 mark of the third. With time running down and the Hawks pressing late in regulation, Chevalier blocked a couple of potentially dangerous point shots before finding room down the right boards on a Windsor clearing attempt, potting an empty-netter to clinch the hat-trick. Six different Lancers picked up an assist in helping the women leapfrog over UOIT and Western into fifth-place in the conference standings.

Laurier was 0-for-5 on the power-play while Windsor was 0-for-3. The Lancers garnered 32 shots on the evening, while Kozovski improves her save-percentage to .894 on the year.

The women will look to maintain their second-half momentum tomorrow evening in their final game of the regular season against Waterloo. Windsor is 6-1-1 in the 2014 portion of their conference schedule, and will look to avenge a 4-3 overtime loss to the Warriors suffered on October 5.

Saturday evening is also Senior's Night at South Windsor Arena, as the women will honour their graduating athletes in a pre-game ceremony before puck-drop, which is set for 4:00 p.m. The game will be available live at GoLancers.TV.