TORONTO – First year Paula Lagamba (Toronto) scored her first career hat-trick to lift the No 2. nationally ranked Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks to a 8-3 victory over the No.8 ranked York Lions. This is the first regular season game that Laurier has given up three goals.
The Golden Hawks continue the quest for a perfect season with the win to move their record to 24-0-0. York sits in the third place in the OUA with a 16-8-1 record.
Laurier’s Heather Fortuna (Kitchener, Ont.), who had five points in the game, opened the scoring five minutes into the first period while the Hawks were on the power play. York answered right back with a power play marker of their own from Kristie Wilson (Hamilton, Ont.) just over two minutes later. Paula Lagamba and Andrea Ironside (Collingwood, Ont.) closed out the scoring in the period with goals just over a minute apart.
The second period was all York’s as the Lions tied up the match with goals from Victoria Benacquista (Keswick) and Chloe Milano (Maple, Ont.).
The flood gates opened in the third for the Hawks as they scored five unanswered goals to take the game. Lagamba scored two, while Kaley Powers (Kingston, Ont.), Andrea Ironside and Candace Styles (Orangeville, Ont.) all got singles.
Ironside also picked up an assist in the game which ties her with Andrea Bevan for most career assists at Laurier with 63.
Coming off her record tying shutout performance, Liz Knox stopped 18 of 21 for the win. York’s netminding tandem of Sydney McMurter (Orillia, Ont.) and Sydney Brown (Kincardine, Ont.) turned aside 26 of 34 in the loss.
The Golden Hawks went 2-8 with the man-advantage while the Lions went 2-11.
Laurier will now host the Queen’s Gaels on Saturday, February 13th at the Waterloo Memorial Recreation Complex. Puck drops at 3:00 p.m.
