BARRIE - On Wednesday, March 23^rd, Humber’s women’s hockey team participated in their final Ontario Collegiate Recreation tournament of the season hosted by Georgian College.

The tournament opened with the undefeated Humber Hawks facing Trent University, the team that they faced in their most recent tournament championship win.  With short bench of just nine players, the Hawks held Trent off the scoresheet until halfway through the game, playing with just 4 skaters instead of 5.  Although the Hawks played hard and with a lot of heart, they lost their first game of the tournament, and the season, 2-0.  For her efforts in the game, rookie forward, Ella McCullough was named as the team’s player of the game.

In their second game, the Humber squad faced a familiar opponent in the La Cite Coyotes.  The Hawks took a commanding lead in the first period scoring 5 goals.  McCullough opened the scoring with a natural hat trick, followed by a point shot from rookie defender, Darian Carpenter, and the fifth goal by first-year forward, Samantha Neumann.  In the third period, Neumann would add her second goal of the game giving Humber a 6-0 lead, followed by a pretty goal by veteran forward and alternate captain, Ellena Douitsis which ultimately ended the game with a 7-goal mercy.  Rookie goaltender, Rachel Zmigrodzki posted the shutout for the Hawks and was named the player of the game.

After preliminary play, the Hawks were ranked in 3^rd place and would face the 2^nd place Georgian Grizzlies, the host team, in the first of 2 semi-final matches.

The semi-final game remained scoreless until the second period when Neumann sniped yet another goal for the Hawks putting the team up 1-0 over Georgian.  Both teams traded chances, but neither team was able to sneak through the opposition’s defense.  First-year forward, Rebecca Beck, was able to score the Hawks’ final goal of the game with just 12 seconds left on the clock to solidify the 2-0 win for Humber, sending them to their third championship game of the semester.  Zmigrodski posted her second shutout of the tournament while Carpenter and fellow rookie, Teagan Strachan, earned co-player of the game selections. 

In the Championship game, the Hawks would once again face Trent University – a rematch of the previous tournament’s championship game where the Hawks were successful.  Humber’s short bench, in their 4^th game of the day, held their opponent off the scoresheet until the end of the second period.  Down 1-0 with 3 minutes to go in the game, the Hawks opted to pull their goalie for the extra attacker.  The team was able to generate a number of chances, but were unable to score.  They managed to hold Trent to just a single goal until the last second of the game where they were able to score into the empty net.  The Hawk’s finished the tournament in second place.  Versatile forward, Lauren Dale, was named the player of the game for Humber.  This game also marked the final appearance for Hawks’ Captain, Kara Neveau, who graduates at the end of this semester.