Queen’s Golden Gaels scored on all three shots in a shootout Saturday night to defeat the lowly Brock Badgers 4-3 in an Ontario University Athletics women’s hockey game at the Memorial Centre.
Jessica Wakefield, Taryn Pilon and Fiona Lester all beat Badgers goaltender Stephanie Loucks, who had made 28 saves to get her team into the tie-breaker.
Two first-period goals by rookie Addi Halladay, her eighth and ninth goals of the season, gave Queen’s a 2-1 lead going into the second. Goals by Brock’s Christina Ieradi and Nadia Larocca of Queen’s, just a minute apart, sent the game into the third period with Queen’s on top 3-2.
Ieradi’s second goal of the game, on a power play midway through the final period, forced overtime. In an extra period where Queen’s outshot Brock 2-1, neither team was able to break the deadlock.
Oddly, it was the failed shootout attempt of Ieradi—who leads her team and is eighth in the nation with 11 goals—that proved to be the difference.
Caitlyn Lahonen made 22 saves for the goaltending win.
In addition to avoiding the indignity of losing to the league’s last-place team—the Badgers have won just one of 18 games—with the win, Queen’s, 13-3-3, remains in a second-place tie with Toronto and Guelph, three points behind Western. Toronto defeated Waterloo 2-0 on Sunday, while Guelph, which has played one less game than the other two, beat Ontario Tech 4-1. Those three teams are all one point ahead of Windsor, which kept pace by downing York 4-1 Sunday.
The Gaels resume play Thursday in Oshawa against Ontario Tech.