Box Score The Nipissing Lakers women's hockey team will be happy to return to home ice this weekend.

The Lakers had a tough mid-week road trip, dropping a pair of games – their latest a tight 2-1 loss to the Ontario Tech Ridgebacks Thursday afternoon.

A day after a 4-1 loss to the nation's top team, the Toronto Varsity Blues, the Lakers came up short in Oshawa.

After a scoreless opening period, all the offence came in the middle frame.

The Ridgebacks went to 2-0 with goals five minutes apart after the midway mark of the period.

Down 2-0, the Lakers responded late in the period when Brianna Gaffney scored unassisted.

Unfortunately, that was as close as Nipissing would get, despite firing a total of 36 shots at the Ontario Tech net, including 11 in the final period.

Chloe Marshall finished with 23 saves for Nipissing.

The teams will play the second half of the home-and-home Saturday night at Memorial Gardens.

Game time is set for 7pm.