MONTREAL – The Waterloo Warriors scored a pair of first-period goals and held on for a narrow 2-1 victory over McGill in a women's hockey preseason contest at McConnell Arena, Saturday.
It marked only the second lifetime meeting between these teams and the first in 19 years, dating back to a 7-1 McGill victory on Nov. 29, 2003.
The event also served as the Martlets first annual Orange Shirt Game, commemorating the National Truth and Reconciliation Day, that recognizes the country's Indigenous peoples and served to remember the children, survivors and families impacted by residential and day schools. McGill sported orange shirts in their pre-game warmup and wore orange skate laces and stick tape for the rendezvous with Waterloo.
Makenzie McCallum, an alternate captain with the hockey team who is also an Indigenous student-athlete of Métis heritage from Morden, Man., addressed the crowd as part of the pre-game ceremony. She is a science senior, majoring in anatomy and cell biology.
Waterloo, which had a 42-23 margin in shots, opened the scoring with a shorthanded goal by
Kassidy McCarthy at 4:31, followed by
Keiara Raitt's unassisted marker at 15:50.
That two-goal cushion stood until the third period when McGill freshman
Anika Cormier of Ste. Marie de Kent, N.B., spoiled the shutout bid at 8:10, with her first career goal, assisted by two other rookies,
Sarah-Maude Lavoie of Victoriaville Que., and Ontario Hockey Academy product
Maïka Lecavalier.
Warriors netminder
Kara Mark stopped 22 of 23 shots faced to register the win, while
Sarah Carmichael, from St. Lazare, Que., blocked 40 of 42,
Both teams were fruitless on five power play opportunities apiece.
Waterloo will make the short trek to the other side of Mt. Royal on Sunday, to confront the Montreal Carabins in a 2 p.m.start.
McGill, which dropped to 0-6 in preseason play, has a week off before heading stateside for three games in three days against Ivy League opponents, beginning with Cornell (Oct. 7), followed by Yale (Oct. 8) and Dartmouth (Oct. 9).
SCORING SUMMARY
