Game Summary

The Waterloo Warriors put forth a valiant effort against the no. 3 Laurier Golden Hawks in a tight 4-3 loss on Friday night at the Columbia Icefield Arena in the first battle of Waterloo of 2011-12. 

Second year forward Andrea Shapero (Toronto) led the Hawks to victory with two goals while netminder's Rachel Hamilton (Wasaga Beach, Ont.) and Erika Thunder (Buffalo Point, Man.) shared the goaltending duties for Laurier making a combined 19 saves.

With the loss Waterloo dropped to 1-4-0 on the season while the No. 3 Golden Hawks remain perfect on the season at 3-0-0.

Opening the scoring for Laurier was Tammy Freiburger (Wingham, Ont.) who one-timed the puck past Waterloo goalie Martina Michaud (Etobicoke/) after a perfect pass from  Katherine Shirriff (Carrying Place, Ont.) at the 3:43 minute mark.

Waterloo evened the score five minutes later as rookie winger Kaitlyn McDonell (Kincardine/) went down on a two-on-one with linemate Nicole Ballantyne (Toronto/) who slid a perfect pass over to McDonell.  McDonell would make no mistake on the shot firing it over the glove of Hamilton for her first goal as a Warrior.

Laurier would regain the lead one minute later as hometown girl Caitlyn Muirhead (Waterloo, Ont.) finished yet another nice passing play by the Hawks for her third goal of the season.   Before the end of the first period Shapero would slide a rolling puck past the blocker side of Michaud for her first of two in the game marking the end of the night for Michaud who allowed three goals on nine shots.

The second period would be all Laurier who fired shots from all angles on backup goalie Rebecca Bouwhuis (Orillia/) who was solid keeping the game within reach for the Warriors.  Laurier would get one behind Bouwhuis at the 15:52 mark with Candice Styles (Orangeville, Ont.) generating speed down the wing and sliding the puck across on her backhand over to Shapero who made no mistake with her second of the game.  Laurier outshot Waterloo 9-1 in the second period as they headed into the final frame with a 4-1 lead.

The third period would be a different story as Waterloo showed their determination to stick with the mighty Hawks.  Kelly MacLean (St. George/) cut into the Laurier lead four minutes into the final frame with her third goal of the season.  MacLean would find the net once again eight minutes later on the power play as she would fire a shot past back up goalie Thunder who relieved Hamilton at the start of the third. 

The Warriors continued to pressure the Hawks late in the period but did not get the bounce they were looking for, falling by the slimmest of margins, 4-3.

Waterloo has tomorrow off before returning to the ice on Sunday to face the York Lions in Toronto at 2pm.