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| Sophie Lalor scored her 10th goal of the regular season on Saturday. |
On Saturday night, Lalor became the first member of the University of Saskatchewan Huskies Women’s Hockey Team to hit the 10-goal plateau in regular season play in four years. The fourth-year winger scored the Huskies first goal in a 2-1 U Sports regular season victory over the visiting MacEwan University Griffins before 450 spectators are Merlis Belsher Place.
The win was the sixth straight for the Huskies, who are rated 10th in the U Sports Top 10 Rankings.
Lalor netted her milestone goal with a power-play marker at the 11:18 mark of the first period, which gave the Huskies a 1-0 lead in the contest. With the tally, Lalor finished the night having recorded 10 goals and eight assists to go with a plus-eight rating in the plus-minus department appearing in all of the Huskies 22 regular season games.
The Penticton, B.C., product’s 10 goals and 18 points are career highs. Her eight assists equals a career high set back in the 2019-20 season.
Before Lalor hit the 10-goal mark, the last Huskies player to score 10-or-more goals in one regular season was heart-and-soul forward Bailee Bourassa back in the 2019-20 campaign. In 2019-20, Bourassa appeared in all of the Huskies 28 regular season games recording 12 goals, seven assists and a plus-five rating.
Offensive-defender Isabella Pozzi, who is in her fifth season of U Sports eligibilty, picked up the lone assist on Lalor’s power-play goal against the Griffins. With the helper, Pozzi now has career highs in goals (four), assists (eight) and points (12) this season to go along with a plus-six rating.
The Huskies outshot the Griffins 18-7 in the opening 20 minutes, but the visitors managed to send the contest into the first intermission locked in a 1-1 draw. At the 14:41 mark of the first period, forward Joie Simon netted the equalizer for the Griffins with rookie defender Ali Macaulay picking up the lone assist on the play.
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| Sophie Lalor has career highs in goals (10) and points (18). |
At the 9:13 mark of the third, Huskies third-year winger Kelsey Hall potted her seventh goal of the season that held up as the winner in the Huskies 2-1 victory. The tally was Hall’s third game winner of the campaign.
On the season, Hall has career highs in goals (seven), assists (six) and points (13) to go with a plus-four rating appearing in all the Huskies 22 regular season games.
Rookie forward Ava Bergman picked up the lone assist on Hall’s goal. The helper was Bergman’s first career regular season point in U Sports play. She has appeared in six regular season contests for the Huskies in the current campaign.
Colby Wilson made 20 saves to pick up the win in goal for the Huskies. Brianna Sank turned away 34 shots to take the setback in goal for the Griffins.
With the win, the Huskies improve to 16-4-1-1 to sit fourth in the Canada West Conference. The lowest they can finish in the Canada West standings is fourth, which means they will have home ice advantage for at least one series in the conference playoffs. The Huskies will host the U Sports Women’s Hockey Championship Tournament from March 14 to 17 at Merlis Belsher Place.
The Huskies sit two standings points behind the defending U Sports champion Mount Royal University Cougars (18-4) for third in the conference and four standings points back of the U of Alberta Pandas (18-2-1-1) for second in the conference. The University of British Columbia Thunderbirds top the Canada West standings with a 20-1-1-2 mark.
The Griffins fell to 3-20-1 with the loss and sit last in the nine-team Canada West.
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| Isabella Pozzi picked up an assist on Saturday. |
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