Kingston, Ont. (October 15, 2016) - The women's hockey team (0-1) started the 2016-17 regular season Saturday night at the Memorial Centre with a 5-2 loss to the Nipissing Lakers (1-0), who eliminated Queen's from the first round of the OUA playoffs last year.

GAME FLOW
The Lakers were first on the board five minutes into the opening frame, when Alexane Papineau drew first bloodd for the visitors. The Gaels responded soon after on Hailey Wilson's (Pickering, Ont.) first CIS goal. The rookie Gaels forward drove the net and finished a perfect pass from Michele Knecht (North York, Ont.), who had flown through the neutral zone and up the right wing with the puck. Micaela Smith (Cobourg, Ont.) earned the second assist by springing Knecht up the boards with a cross-ice pass.
 

ICYMI Hailey Wilson scored her first CIS goal in the Gaels home opener. pic.twitter.com/6V9zWZEtF1

— #ChaGheill (@queensgaels) October 16, 2016

Knotted at 1-1 to open the second period, a flurry of action gave Nipissing a 3-1 lead. Kaley Tienhaara started the scoring in the middle stanza, collecting the puck after a high bounce off the Gaels goalie Claire Warren (Halifax, N.S.) and making a move in tight to put the Lakers ahead. Bronwyn Bolduc made a similar move in transition just over a minute later to make it 3-1 Nipissing. The Gaels caught a break with a good forecheck midway through the period, with Emily Jukosky (Stirling, Ont.) forcing the turnover and Danelle Bishoff (Calgary) finding Megan Farrell (Barrie, Ont.) in the slot, who made no mistake to bring Queen's within one. After the Lakers picked up a late goal from Taylor McManus, the teams went to the locker rooms with Queen's trailing 4-2.

Nipissing killed the latter half of a penalty to start the third period, and used that momentum to go up 5-2 on the final goal of the game on the stick of Samantha Strassburger.

Queen's outshot the visitors 34-26, but Lakers goalie Jacqueline Rochefort earned the win with 32 stops. Warren was pulled from the Gaels net after the fifth Nipissing goal, being replaced by Stephanie Pascal (Sudbury, Ont.).


BY THE NUMBERS
4 - Four players on the Nipissing roster had multi-point nights
7 - Queen's went to the power-play seven times 
1 - Hailey Wilson recorded her first CIS point with the Gaels first goal of the year

UP NEXT
Queen's is back in action tomorrow afternoon, playing York (1-0) Sunday afternoon at 2:30pm back at the Memorial Centre.