It's almost a cruel joke that a hockey puck is made of rubber. 
 
The game is so precise and symphonic and fast — so fast — that its players deserve a much better object of affection than what is, essentially, a rock-hard car tire that's been pressed into a tiny disc. It bounces and ricochets and rolls and skips, despite the best efforts of some of the world's greatest athletes, flying around a sheet of ice with razors on their feet. 
 
The bounces can even out over a season, or a month, or a playoff series. But in one game, that 6-ounce hunk of vulcanized rubber can be all the difference; it can deliver pure elation, or crushing heartbreak. And for the Waterloo Warriors women's hockey team, it can derail the best-laid plans of the most successful season in program history.
 
The top-seeded Warriors fell victim to several strange bounces — two of which ended up in their net — as the Western Mustangs skated away with a 2-1 upset victory in the OUA McCaw Cup quarterfinals at the Columbia Icefield Arena.
 
The Warriors came out of the gates with all the pressure and possession, but the first puck to run afoul of physics came just under three minutes into the game: the puck pinballed off the end boards and off the side of Mikayla Schnarr's (Waterloo, ON/) net, finding the stick of Mustangs forward Brooke Dicicco. Just like that, the Mustangs were up 1-0 on a team that won 13 of 15 contests this season. 
 
The Warriors pushed back toward the end of the first frame, but Western netminder Kaitlyn Booth denied the hosts the opportunity to tie the game. When the Warriors came close to knotting up the score with a power play that straddled the first and second periods, it looked like Waterloo had almost erased the fortunes of their start.
 
But, that little rubber disc, it can find the smallest pebble in a freshly-scraped ice surface, and wreak total havoc. Just after the power play ended, Schnarr — one of the best puck-handling goalies in the province — came out of her net to play a dump-in up to the neutral zone. But the puck spun and hopped, ever so slightly, causing Schnarr to fan on the clearing opportunity. In stead, the puck found Western's Grace Bellamy, who slid it home to give the Mustangs a two-goal lead. 
 
The stunned Warriors didn't stay on the emotional mat for long though, and their speed and skill began to tilt the ice. It finally paid off when Kassidy McCarthy (Bowmanville, ON/) streaked in on the right wing and roofed a shot short-side on Booth, as she simultaneously ignited the home crowd and cut the lead to 2-1. 
 
Shortly thereafter, it could have been 2-2, but again, that puck. This time, it didn't bounce or roll when it shouldn't have, but it found the most improbable way to stay out of the net: Brooklyn Cole (Kitchener, ON/) burst in on the left side and lifted a shot labeled for the top corner, but before it could hit twine, it clanged off the shaft of Booth's stick, and crashed harmlessly into the end board glass. An inch of Sher-Wood somehow kept the Mustangs in front 2-1 after two periods.
 
The Warriors continued to press in the third, even when they took three straight minor penalties. But Booth made one more outstanding point-blank stop on Madison Pritchard (Richards Landing, ON/), and the Warriors couldn't find the equalizer. The bounces didn't even need to be squared up, the Warriors just needed one more that never came. 
 
The Warriors enjoyed the greatest season in the history of the program, despite the fact that it ended prematurely. Now, the black and gold will look to build on this season with an outstanding group of returning veterans and incomers, with eyes fixed on bigger prizes come this time next season.
 
And maybe, the cosmic arbiters of puck bounces will remember that they owe the Warriors a few.