In a hard-fought battle at South Windsor Arena, the Lancer women's hockey team opened 2017 with a tough 3-2 loss to the visiting Toronto Varsity Blues.
 
The loss moves the Lancers to 5-1-7-2 on the season, while the Blues improve to 6-1-5-2 to sit just one point ahead of the Blue & Gold in the OUA standings.
 
Birthday girl and OUA leading scorer Krystin Lawrence opened the scoring for the Lancers just 3:44 into the game firing the puck over the left shoulder of Blues goaltender Katey Teekasingh.
 
Blues captain Kristi Riseley replied for the visitors coming out of the penalty box and finding the back of the net 10 minutes later. The two teams were deadlocked at 1-1 after 20 minutes.
 
Midway through the second period, defenceman Shaelynn Waite put the Blues ahead sending a point shot through traffic for her first career goal. The Lancers responded as Jillian Rops scored a power play marker with just 45 seconds remaining in the period to leave the game tied at 2-2 after 40 minutes.
 
Toronto scored the game winner 4:50 into the third period when Taylor Day came in to beat Windsor netminder Morgan Farrow. Minutes later, Lancer forward Natalie Barrette looked to have the equalizer, but her shot wrung off the cross bar to maintain the Blues one-goal lead.
 
Windsor will return to the ice on Sunday when they host the Ryerson Rams at 4:00pm at South Windsor Arena. The game can be seen live at www.oua.ca.