Two goals in the final three minutes of the third period gave the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks a 3-2 victory and ended the Ontario University Athletics women’s hockey season for the Queen’s Golden Gaels Saturday night.

The win gave Laurier, the defending league champion, a 2-0 win in the best-of-three quarter-final series. It’s the second year in a row that the Hawks have ousted the Gaels from the playoffs.

It was a bitter loss for the Gaels, who began the series as the No. 6-ranked team in Canada, with a 16-5-3 record, five points better than sixth-place Laurier. The difference was largely accounted for by Queen’s two victories over Laurier in the regular year, but the Gaels limped home, winning just one of their last five games.

Playing at the Memorial Centre Saturday night, Queen’s scored the first goal of the game and the Gaels led 2-1 going into the third period. The score stayed that way until Erica Kiviaho scored for the Hawks to tie the game with less than three minutes to play.

In a scenario eerily reminiscent of the loss suffered by the Queen’s men as they were eliminated Friday night, immediately after the tying goal the Gaels took a penalty and 90 seconds after Kiviaho scored, Haley Baxter put Laurier ahead, beating Gaels goalie Caitlyn Lahonen with a shot from the point.

It was just the third power play enjoyed by the Hawks in the series, but they were able to take advantage of the league’s worst penalty-killing team to score the series-winning goal.

Danielle Girard scored Queen’s first goal, pouncing on a rebound on a power play during the game’s 14th minute. After Jessie Hurrell tied the game early in the second period, Danielle Bishoff put the Gaels back in front, when her shot from the point hit a Laurier player and deflected over the shoulder of goaltender Amanda Smith.

Hurrell, Laurier’s leading scorer in the regular season, assisted on both third-period goals.

The Gaels outshot Laurier 29-27, but again Smith got the best of them. Smith, who had shut out the Gaels in the previous three playoff games, had her post-season shutout streak against Queen’s end after 228 minutes and five seconds.

Laurier, winner of nine of the last 11 league titles, will advance to face regular-season champion Western in the semifinals. The Hawks have never failed to reach the conference final in any of the 21 years since the Laurier program began.