Banner Season: Rynne's OT winner gives Warriors McCaw Cup title
Toronto, Ont. (via Waterloo Warriors) - Everyone in the rink thought Carly Orth was going to shoot.
With the McCaw Cup final deadlocked at 1-1 through 60 minutes of regulation and 8-plus minutes of sudden-death overtime, the Waterloo Warriors forward used her deft backchecking skills and her long reach to swipe the puck just inside the Toronto Varsity Blues zone. As Orth pivoted on a dime and barreled towards the Toronto net, linemate Paige Rynne stayed a stride behind. "I was hanging back," said Rynne, who was trying to open up for a possible rebound, or maybe a drop pass. "But then I saw her taking it wide, so I just tried to get around their D."
"Yeah, I thought she was going to shoot," agreed Waterloo head coach Shaun Reagan. The Blues' defender appeared to think so too, because she closed on Orth quickly, even dropping down to one knee. Toronto goalie Erica Fryer was likely thinking shot, too, since Orth's first period wrister had beaten her for Waterloo's only goal in regulation. Indeed, it seemed that everyone in the rink thought Orth was going to shoot – except Orth herself.
"Their D pinched hard over towards me, so if I'd have shot, she would have blocked it," said Orth. "I was either going to hold on to it and go around the net, or try to get the pass across."
"She made a beautiful move," said Rynne of her linemate, who used that same long reach to outwait the sliding Blues defender. "She was incredibly composed and patient. She did all the hard work, and made it easy for me."
"Everything just seemed to move in slow-motion," added Orth. "I just saw the pass make it across, and saw it go in. It was a surreal moment."
It was also the biggest moment in the 22-year history of the Warriors women's hockey program, as Orth's feed and Rynne's finish gave the Warriors a 2-1 overtime win, and their first-ever OUA championship crown.
It's the culmination of a long road for Waterloo, who've been amongst the OUA's dominant teams for the past three seasons. But according to Reagan, the adversity in recent years helped his team remain calm, and play within their own identity in Saturday's OUA title game at Varsity Arena in Toronto.
"I'm just so proud of this team," said Reagan. "With our group, if we're not having fun and enjoying ourselves, we are not at our best. I thought we just stayed loose, and went with the ebbs and flows of the game."
Mikayla Schnarr once again starred in the Waterloo net, turning aside 25 shots, including a pair of highlight-reel stops on Toronto breakaways. The veteran netminder also stopped five straight shots in the extra session, before the Warriors ended it on their first shot of overtime. Both Rynne and Orth notched a goal and an assist apiece, with Orth earning McCaw Cup player-of-the-game honours.
If the storylines weren't dramatic enough with a conference championship on the line, Warriors veteran defender Trisha Cho made her surprise debut after missing the entire regular season due to injury. The fifth-year rearguard and 2022 OUA all-star slid right back into a top-4 role on Waterloo's blue line, and showed no signs of rust.
"It's huge, it's like a trade deadline acquisition, to add a player like that to our lineup," said Reagan. "She's worked so hard to get back, and I'm just happy for her."
Although the Warriors were no doubt buoyed by both Cho's return and the prospects of their first McCaw Cup appearance ever, it was the defending-champion Blues who opened the scoring when forward Juliette Blais-Savoie batted a bouncing puck home off a broken play to make it 1-0 for the hosts.
But later in the frame, the Warriors answered back with the dynamic duo of Orth and Rynne once again at the center of things. After taking a lead pass from Sarah Irwin, Orth motored in on the right wing and slammed on the brakes to open a shooting lane. At the exact moment, Rynne flew in front of Fryer to impede her vision, as Orth ripped a top-corner wrister to even things at 1-1.
The score stayed 1-1 all the way through a tense second period. Waterloo failed to cash on a 5-on-3 advantage for 1:41, and the Blues were rebuffed themselves by Schnarr and company after their big penalty kill.
With the game still in a 1-1 stalemate into the third, the Warriors had some chances to find the eventual winner in the final frame. Waterloo's best opportunity came from a two-on-one with OUA all-star Leah Herrfort and Tatum James, but Fryer went post-to-post and made a miraculous blocker save on James to keep it tied. Orth nearly found the net again later in the third on a Waterloo power play, but Fryer shut the door again, and the Blues kept the puck out on the ensuing goalmouth scramble.
Early in overtime, Warriors defender Lyndsy Acheson took a necessary hooking call that negated a dangerous Blues scoring chance. But the Warriors were confident in their league-best penalty kill, which once again got the job done: with some key shot blocks from Irwin and Jessie Fennell, and a few timely saves from Schnarr, Waterloo killed the penalty off and set the stage for Rynne's heroics.
Just minutes later, as Blais-Savoie tried to stickhandle her way out of the Blues zone, forward Lauren Bell flew off the Waterloo bench on a change, and forced the puck carrier to the middle of the ice. It allowed Orth to swiftly lift Blais-Savoie's stick and cradle the puck all at once, starting in motion the biggest moment in Warriors history. In a matter of seconds, it was over: Orth curled around the defender, slid the puck across the crease, and watched as Rynne snapped it over Fryer's glove. The Warriors bench emptied, and the busloads of visiting fans erupted.
With an OUA title in tow, the Warriors will now look to claim more hardware later this week as they head to the U Sports national championships in Saskatoon. And according to Reagan, his team is confident that they have what it takes to make a major impact on the national stage.
"In a short tournament like this, I think it's important that we play our own game," said Reagan. "We're a confident group, and we have a lot of belief in ourselves."
