Women's hockey win keeps them tied for first
By Ryan Rogers
Sports Editor
October 24, 2007
 The Lancers Women’s Hockey team stayed tied atop the league standings after defeating the Western Mustangs 3-1 in a tough tilt for their home opener last weekend.
Windsor, now with five wins and one loss are tied with York and Guelph, with 10 points each.
The Lancers opened the scoring with an early goal by Kelly Calhoun, but fell into penalty trouble for the remainder of the first period.
Western tied the score, 1-1, while they had a two-man advantage just before the final minute of the first period. Through the second period, Windsor continued to take penalties, and struggled to string together any amount of time without going down a man. Western had the Lancers pinned down in their own end for the second half of the second period.
On the penalty trouble, head coach Carrie Sekela said, “I think it was a lack of our feet getting going, mostly…. [and] you get a little nervous in your home opener.” As for being nervous in front of the home crowd, Sekela commented, “[They’re] probably the best crowd we’ve ever had at a home game.”
Penalty trouble has been the Lancer’s bane for years. “I think we’re a team that, traditionally over the last two years, has spent a lot of time on the penalty kill. We do it well, we haven’t been scored on very often. I think this is the first that a team has gotten one on us in the first five games. And we’ve taken a lot of penalties in the first five games,” said Sekela. The Lancers have amassed 84 minutes in penalties over the last six games. In perspective, in each game the Lancers have been penalized more than each of their opponents so far this year.
The Mustangs were the first team to score against the Lancers on the power play this year, which is a telling stat, said Sekela. “It goes to show you just how hard we work in our end and that we’re patient,” she said.
During the second intermission, Lancer captain Darris Ford said the team discussed taking penalties. “You got to move your feet all the time, you got to get going all the time, and it doesn’t matter if you’re five-on-five, five-on-four, or five-on-three, you gotta keep going,” said Ford.
She continued, “We’re still getting used to the new stick rules, so mainly it’s stick infractions that we’re taking.”
In the third period the Lancers stayed out of the penalty box long enough to score twice more, taking the lead. The second Lancer goal was scored by Manon Davis and the third by the Lancer captain. Down two quick goals the Mustangs called a timeout to regroup and plan their response. The Lancers established themselves defensively, and beyond a terrific shot from in close on goaltender Jamie Tessier, they kept the Mustangs on the perimeter.
A tense moment late in the game saw Ford come off the ice with an injury, but she didn’t miss a shift. And while the Lancers took a penalty late in the third period, it was Ford who pushed the puck out of the Lancer end and pursued it up the ice to draw a Western penalty to neutralize the power play.
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