MONTREAL -- Bronwyn Bolduc scored twice as the Nipissing University Lakers surprised the McGill Martlets, handing them a 5-1 loss to open the exhibition women's hockey season, Friday, at McConnell Arena.

It marked the first ever meeting between McGill and the Northern Ontario-based Lakers, who debuted just four years ago in 2013-14. Nipissing finished second in the OUA in 2017 but did not advance to nationals as the host team, Queen's, automatically took Ontario's second berth.

"There were some good things that happened (despite the lopsided score)," said Martlets head coach Peter Smith. "Some of the structural things that we worked on were good and in spite of giving up some goals, our defensive zone coverage was pretty good, as was our forecheck. Clearly the area that we want to continue to work on -- and we knew that -- is that we don't want to score one goal. That's not enough, so we want to keep working on generating some offence.

"We've got 10 preseason games and that's what these games are for. As I told the players after, as long as we're getting better every game (we're on the right track). It's probably going to be a little tougher to play our best hockey in September or maybe early October, but by the time we get to (our opening game on) the 21st of October we want to be playing absolutely our best hockey."

Bolduc opened the scoring on the power play at 15:15 of the first period but Jade Downie-Landry, a sophomore from St. Jean sur Richelieu, Que., tied things up for the Martlets just 1:20 into the second. However, the Lakers quickly took over the period. Ava Keis regained Nipissing's lead at 4:26, then Madison Solie added another at 10:07.  Jade Gauthier made it 4-1 at 15:22 and Bolduc rounded out the scoring with a shorthanded tally at 18:57.

The Martlets outshot their opponents 32-28, including an 15-7 advantage in the opening period. The Lakers held a 12-8 margin in the second and the shots were even at 9-9 in the scoreless final frame.

"We kind of had a little bit of a lapse in the second period," noted Smith. "I thought in the first period we were a little better than them and then the third period was pretty even, but in the second period we weren't very good."

McGill starting netminder Tricia Deguire, a sophomore from Sherbrooke, Que., who played in 40 of the team's 42 games during her freshman year, conceded all five goals, on 19 shots through the first two periods. Sophomore Rachelle Champion of East York, Ont., who saw action in only three games last year, turned away all nine shots faced in the third.

Nipissing was backstopped by Danika Ranger, a freshman who led Team Canada to a silver medal at the 2017 under-18 women's world championship. The 18-year-old saved 31 of McGill's 32 shots in the contest.

The Lakers were 1-for-5 on the power play, while McGill went 0-for-6. Nipissing continues their grueling Montreal tour with back-to-back games against the Carabins on Saturday and Sunday.

The Martlets (0-1) host York (1-1) on Sunday, Sept. 17 at 3 p.m. at McConnell Arena. There will be no parking access at the venue, due to the Montreal Alouettes game that afternoon. The public can only access McConnell Arena by walking through two areas: via the Duluth Street and Fire Station Road entrance (i.e. the east side gate off Avenue du Parc) or by walking up University Street, past the student residences, and crossing Forbes Field, where there is an access ramp to the Arena.

LINK TO COMPLETE SCORING SUMMARY