NORTH BAY, Ont. – The UOIT women's hockey team erased a two-goal deficit twice in their game on Saturday afternoon as they beat the no. 7 ranked Nipissing Lakers 4-3 in a shootout.
 
Kassidy Nauboris (Brampton, Ont.) recorded an assist on all three UOIT goals and scored in the shootout as the Ridgebacks earned their third straight victory. UOIT (4-2-4-3) moves into a tie for a playoff position with the Windsor Lancers (5-1-7-2) while Nipissing remains in second place (8-2-2-2).
 
Nipissing got off to a great start scoring two goals in the opening six minutes of the game. With 13 seconds to go in the first period, Chelsea Ball (Maple, Ont.) managed to cut the lead in half as she scored her sixth goal of the season while extending her point streak to five games.
 
The teams would trade second period goals with Mikaeli Cavell (Edmonton, Alta.) finding the back of the net for UOIT, cutting the Nipissing lead to 3-2. Cavell extended a point streak of her own as she has recorded seven points in her last four games.
 
The Ridgebacks tying goal in the third period came from an unlikely source as assistant captain Jenna Carter notched her first goal of the season. Carter's power play marker was assisted by Cavell and Nauboris.
 
In the late stages of overtime, it looked as if the Ridgebacks had won the game but the referees ruled that the puck crossed the line after the buzzer. Double overtime would also solve nothing forcing a shootout.
 
Ball, Nauboris and Grace Donaldson (St. Thomas, Ont.) all scored highlight reel goals on their shootout attempts while Briar Hughes (Thornton, Ont.) made two saves to give the Ridgebacks the comeback win.
 
Hughes made 19 saves in her third win of the season. Shots finished all-square at 22 apiece.
 
UOIT will wrap up their weekend road trip with an afternoon game against the Laurentian Voyageurs on Sunday.
 
QUICK LOOK AT THE RIDGEBACKS
Overall Record: 7-7-4
Conference Record: 6-4-3
 
Next game: Sunday, Jan. 8 at Laurentian (Sudbury, Ont.)