(NOTE: La version française sera disponible sur le site web de SIC dans les meilleurs délais)
 
CALGARY – Kelty Apperson of New Hamburg, Ont., scored once and set up the winning tally as eighth-seeded St. Thomas University registered a 2-1 upset over No.5 McGill in a consolation semifinal, Friday, at the CIS Final Eight women's hockey championship.
 
CHAMPIONSHIP WEBSITE: http://english.cis-sic.ca/championships/wice/index
 
The win qualified the Tommies to play in the consolation final for fifth place Sunday morning, while the Martlets were eliminated from the tournament after dropping both of their games, including a 4-2 setback to UBC in Thursday's opener. It marked McGill's earliest exit from the Nationals in 16 appearances, since their inaugural participation in 1999, when they lost 2-0 to Laurier and 3-2 in a shootout against Alberta. It was also McGill's first-ever loss to a team from the Atlantic conference, snapping a 13-0 record against AUS teams at the CIS tourney.
 
"I thought there were a lot of good things in that game, we had so many scoring chances we just couldn't put the puck in the net," said McGill head coach, Peter Smith, in his 16th season. "It's been a great year, they're a good group, they work hard, they're real coachable but boy, we've had lots of challenges. It's funny, I've coached a long time and unlike a lot of hockey people, I'm not superstitious in the least. I don't really believe in luck, I think you make your own luck. Every once in a while in this game, you get a bounce but geez its been awhile since we had a (lucky) bounce."

The Martlets were put in a difficult position when RSEQ conference player of the year Melodie Daoust went down with a shoulder injury late in their opening loss to UBC. Not only were they playing in the consolation round for the first time in three years, they were forced to do so without their captain and leading scorer, who tallied 30 goals and 54 points in 34 games overall.

The Tommies, on the other hand, redeemed themselves with the upset over McGill after a tourney-opening 3-0 loss to top-seeded Guelph.
 
"I was very pleased with the way we played, any time you can beat a team like McGill that's huge," said St. Thomas' head coach Peter Murphy. "Yesterday's game against Guelph wasn't really our "A" game, today was more about how we usually play. Today was a lot quicker, we were able to skate at our pace a little bit more."
 
St. Thomas netminder Taylor Cook had an excellent game, turning away 36 of 37 shots.
 
"You can't get here without goaltending," explained Murphy. "Cook was really good today, she made some big stops when we needed it and I felt she was in control of the game from her end."
 
The first goal of the game came late in the first period when McGill's Gabrielle Davidson snapped a quick shot from down low that beat Cook on the blocker side at 16:40. It was Davidson's second marker in the tourney, 22nd of the season overall and 125th of her career. However, the Martlets took a penalty on the very next shift and it took all of eight seconds for St. Thomas to capitalize on a rebound by Apperson at 8:44.
 
After a scoreless second period, the Tommies got the go-ahead goal at 8:16 of the third period. Steinert's centering pass found Lauren Henman, who buried a shot along the ice through the five-hole of McGill goaltender Taylor Hough. St. Thomas was able to hold off the final push from the Martlets offence to claim the victory.
 
Player-of-the-game awards went to Kelty Apperson (St. Thomas) and Olivia Sutter (McGill).

"For our graduating players, they've had a great run," added Smith, whose troops posted a 22-19 record overall, including a 19-14 mark against CIS opponents. "They all graduate with a national championship (won) back in 2014. For our returning players, they see what it takes to get all the way to the top. Quite frankly, I don't think there's anything but positives coming out of it."

Nine McGill seniors are expected to graduate, including three fifth-year veterans on the blueline Brittney Fouracres, Kelsie Moffatt and Elizabeth Hillier, fifth-year forwards Joanne Cagianos, Stefanie Pohlod and Erika Pyke, along with goaltender Taylor Hough, plus forwards Pamela Psihogios and Olivia Sutter.

GAME NOTE: The webcast of the McGill-St.Thomas game drew an audience of 650 viewers, pretty solid numbers for mid-day consolation round matchup... McGill's opening game vs UBC drew 850 online viewers on a Thursday afternoon.

SCORING SUMMARY
Thomas 2, McGill 1

Official Boxscore: http://en.cis-sic.ca/championships/wice/2016/boxscores_champ/20160318_aii9.xml
 
FIRST PERIOD
 
1. MCG Gabrielle Davidson (2) (Alexandria Serpico, Marie-Philip Lavoie), 15:40
2. STU Kelty Apperson (1) (Eliza Snider, Caley Steinert), 17:44 PP
 
PENALTIES:
 
Sutter (MCG) slashing, 3:10;
Jackson (STU) bodychecking, 8:00;
Francis (STU) slashing, 11:13;
Lavoie (MCG) tripping, 17:36.
 
SECOND PERIOD
 
No scoring.
 
PENALTIES:
 
Starnino (MCG) hooking, 14:17;
Oleksuk (STU) hooking, 14:38;
Sergina (STU) hooking, 18:35.
 
THIRD PERIOD
 
3. STU Lauren Henman (1) (Caley Steinert, Kelty Apperson), 8:16
 
PENALTIES:
 
No penalties.
 
GOALS (by period)
MCG 1-0-0: 1
STU 1-0-1: 2
 
SHOTS ON GOAL (by period)
MCG 12-14-11: 37
STU 8-9-6: 23
 
POWER PLAY:
MCG 0-4
STU 1-3
 
GOALTENDERS
MCG – Taylor Hough (L, 0-2, 23 shots, 21 saves, 2 GA, 58:31)
STU – Taylor Cook (W, 1-1, 37 shots, 36 saves, 1 GA, 60:00)
 
PLAYERS OF THE GAME:
MCG: Olivia Sutter
STU: Kelty Apperson
 
ATTENDANCE: 329
REFEREE: Michelle Stapleton
LINESMEN: Shannon Klein, Caitlyn Schwab
 
START: 11:02
END: 12:51
LENGTH: 1:49
 

SCHEDULE & RESULTS (all times MOUNTAIN TIME)

Thursday,March 17
11:00 Quarter-final 1: Guelph 3, St. Thomas 0
15:00 Quarter-final 2: UBC 4, McGill 2

Friday, March 18
11:00 Consolation 1: St. Thomas 2, McGill1
15:00 Quarter-final 3: Saint Mary's 1, Western 0
19:00 Quarter-final 4: Montreal 4, Calgary 0

Saturday, March 19
10:00 Consolation 2: Calgary 3, Western 1
14:00 Semifinal 1: UBC 2, Guelph 1 (SO)
17:30 Semifinal 2: Montreal 3, Saint Mary's 2

Sunday, March 20
8:45 Bronze: Saint Mary's 3, Guelph 1
9:00 5th-place game: Calgary 4, St. Thomas 0
12:30 Final: Montreal 8, UBC 0

 

Tournament most valuable player:

Marie-Pier Chabot, Montreal

Tournament All-Stars:

G Marie Chabot (Montreal)
D Kelly Murray (UBC)
D Katelyn Gosling (Western)
F Iya Gavrilova (Calgary
F Ariane Barker (Montreal)
F Catherine Dubois (Montreal)
 

For further information, please contact:
 
Ben Matchett
University of Calgary
T: 403-220-8143
C: 403-863-8143
E: ben.matchett@ucalgary.ca
 
Lindsay Franco
University of Calgary
T: 403-220-5082
C: 403-993-8122
E: lfranco@ucalgary.ca
 
Michel Bélanger        
Communications & Media Relations
Canadian Interuniversity Sport
T: 613-562-5670 ext. 25
C: 613-447-6334
E: belanger@universitysport.ca