The Lancer women's hockey team opened the winter semester at home Friday night with a strong effort but ultimately fell in thrilling fashion with a 4-3 shootout loss against the visiting Ontario Tech Ridgebacks at the Capri Pizzeria Recreation Complex.
 
The loss moves the Lancers to 3-12 on the season despite putting up a fight in the match and earning a point in the standings to add towards their regular season campaign.  
 
GAME STATS
Fourth-year forward Tori Chenier opened the scoring for the blue and gold while fellow fourth-year forward Amy Maitre had a goal and an assist, and second-year Jessica Gribbon scored as well on a penalty shot opportunity for the blue and gold.
 
Rookie Kendi Lundell also contributed offensively picking up one assist on the night while Lancers veteran netminder Molly Jenkins played sensational making 27 saves in the shootout loss. 
 
GAME FLOW
In the first period, the Lancers struck first at the 7:17 mark in the first with Chenier's second goal of the season notching in the first Lancer goal at home for 2020. Chenier's goal put the blue and gold up 1-0 early on in the first frame. However, despite gaining the momentum early on, the Ridgebacks wasted no time striking back with a goal of their own as a little over a minute after the Windsor goal, Ontario Tech's Megan Johnston put one past the Jenkins to tie the game up at 1-1 at the 8:26 mark of the first.  Windsor would continue to generate chances outshooting the Ridgebacks but Ontario Tech's goaltender, Celine Tessier, turned away all of the shots she faced after the Chenier goal, giving her team some momentum heading into the first intermission. 
 
In the second period, the Ridgebacks would rally behind that late first period momentum to take the lead at the 11:38 mark on a goal by Alex Frigon giving Ontario Tech a 2-1 lead. The Frigon goal would be the lone goal in the second period which allowed the Ridgebacks to maintain control of the game. Ontario Tech would head into the second intermission with the lead despite the Lancers outshooting them 17 to 16 in the period. 
 
In the third period, the game's intensity started to ramp up to a whole other level as both teams upped their play, hungry for a second half of the season victory. The Lancers would receive a blessing from the hockey gods when Jessica Gribbon was awarded a penalty shot after being tripped on a potential scoring chance for the Lancers. Gribbon delivered on the penalty shot knotting things up at 2-2 to give the Lancers new life in the game.  The Ridgebacks however would not stay silenced long as they continued to pour pressure onto the hometown Lancers. A few minutes later after Gribbon's fourth goal of the season on that penalty shot, Ontario Tech's Erin Ross scored to regain the Ridgeback lead. The home crowd continued to have a pulse though as the Lancers took the energy from their fans and managed to quickly respond to make things interesting again as Amy Maitre crashed the net less than a minute after the Ridgeback goal to earn her first goal of the season to tie things up at 3-3. Good chances were traded late in the third period but both goaltenders stood on their heads making crucial saves to give their teams respectively enough energy to continue playing an additional fourth period as overtime was necessary after 60 minutes of play between both squads. 
 
In overtime, the 3-on-3 format solved nothing, despite great opportunities exchanged on both ends of the ice but once again both Tessier for the Ridgebacks and Jenkins for the Lancers stood tall each giving their team a chance to take the 2 points on the line for a win in this contest. 
 
In the shootout, both goaltenders stood their ground yet again but despite Jenkins solid play late in the game, Ontario Tech's Megan Johnston scored the shootout winner scoring the only goal in the shootout from both sides. The Lancers may have dropped a heartbreaker but played with a lot of heart in this one. Despite the loss, the Lancer ladies looked promising with their strong and resilient play which gave fans plenty to get excited about in this Friday night thriller which needed additional time to be decided. 
 
 
UP NEXT
The blue and gold will now be off from league action until next Friday night when they host the University of Toronto Varsity Blues at the Capri Pizzeria Recreation Complex. The puck drop is scheduled for 7:30PM. You get your tickets in advance here at www.goLancers.ca/tickets or you can always catch the action streaming live on OUA.tv.