The Waterloo Warriors women's hockey team didn't have the best start to their weekend, but a big special teams performance made sure that they finished it on a winning note. 

Waterloo got a power play goal from Keiara Raitt (Ancaster,ON/) and a shorthanded goal from Faith Mitchell (Stirling, ON/) en route to a 3-1 win over Queen's on Saturday, just one night after falling to the Toronto Varsity Blues by a 3-0 score.  

The victory over the Gaels snapped a four-game skid for Waterloo, as they climb back over .500 with a 6-5-1 record. Mikayla Schnarr (Waterloo,ON/) was outstanding in both weekend games, as the veteran keeper made 32 saves in the loss against Toronto, before turning away 28 Gaels shots to help her team claim the win. 

Waterloo 0, Toronto 3 

The Warriors came into Friday night's matchup with the defending McCaw Cup champions on a three-game slide. To make matters worse, the black and gold were missing several key players due to injury and illness, and the Blues took full advantage. 

Toronto had the jump off the opening faceoff in the province's capital, as the Blues outshot Waterloo 17-3 through the first period. Toronto captain Taylor Trussler opened the scoring, but a brilliant 20 minutes by Schnarr kept the Waterloo deficit at 1-0 heading into the second period.  

The Warriors tightened up their defensive play in the middle stanza, and had their chances to equalize. But Toronto's Caroline Eagles and Katy McKenna scored in a 49-second span late in the period, and the hosts had a three-goal advantage that they wouldn't relinquish. 

Queen's 1, Waterloo 3  

The Warriors returned home on Saturday night in front of a raucous Pride Day crowd at Columbia Icefield Arena, and promptly ended their losing skid with a full 60-minute effort in their win over the Gaels. 

After a scoreless first period, the Warriors did something they hadn't done since their season-opener in early October: they scored the game's first goal. Waterloo had surrendered the opening goal in ten straight contests, but Raitt deftly tipped home a Sarah Irwin (North Bay,ON/) point shot on an early power play in the second period, giving Waterloo a 1-0 advantage. 

The Gaels responded midway through the second, as Sam Wood took advantage of a turnover and went bar-down on Schnarr's glove side to make it 1-1 after two periods. But with Waterloo in need of a win, it was the Warriors' league-best penalty kill that proved to be the difference. 

With Lyndsy Acheson (Summerland,BC/) in the box for Waterloo, a tenacious forecheck from Kassidy McCarthy (Bowmanville,ON/) and captain Brooklyn Cole (Kitchener,ON/) forced the Gaels into a defensive zone turnover. Cole came away with the puck and found Mitchell, who made no mistake in ripping a wrister past Queen's keeper Emma Tennant. It was Waterloo's second short-handed goal of the season, as they moved to a +1 goal differential on the penalty kill this season. But more importantly, it stood up as the game-winning goal.  

With the Warriors up a goal, Schnarr had one more heroic play later in the third when she lunged to her left and robbed Rebecca Thompson with a glove save. Madison Pritchard's (Richards Landing,ON/) speed earned her an empty-net goal later in the period, as the Warriors salted away the victory. 

The black and gold will now wrap up their first half of the season with a pair of contests next weekend – on Friday, December 1, the Warriors will visit the Brock Badgers, before hosting the TMU Bold in their 2023 finale on Saturday, December 2.