OTTAWA -- Maude Levesque-Ryan made 32 stops as the Ottawa Gee-Gees edged fourth-ranked McGill 2-1 to even their best-of-three RSEQ women's hockey semifinal series at 1-1, Saturday, at the Minto Sports Complex in the nation's capital.

It marked Ottawa's first playoff win in five years, dating back to a 2-0 victory over the Martlets on Feb. 22, 2012. A decisive third contest will take place on Sunday (Feb. 26) at 2 p.m. at McConnell Arena. The winner will advance to play Concordia for the conference crown. The Stingers upset Montreal with a 3-2 win on Saturday to sweep their series against the defending national champs. Both RSEQ finalists earn a berth at the U SPORTS Final Eight national championship tournament in Kingston, Mar. 9-12.

"We made a couple of mistakes," said McGill head coach Peter Smith. "The (early) 5-on-5 goal, we let them get out of their end too easily. We got pinned in our end and they scored on a rebound. The power-play goal was a breakdown in coverage on the PK that ended up in the back of our net. I didn't think we were very good up to that point, then we kind of weathered the storm through the second. We talked about it at the end of the frame that we needed to refocus but got away from our game plan. I'm not sure we really found our game in the first two periods, then we were down two goals and ended up chasing the game. In the third we were good but they blocked a lot of shots and their goaltender played well.

Levesque-Ryan was peppered with 33 shots, including 14 in the second period.

"You're not going to beat that team playing 20 minutes of hockey," added Smith with a bold punctuation mark. "We've played two playoff games against them and we have yet to play a 60-minute hockey game, so that's what we're going to need to do (Sunday) if we're going to be successful. We'll be fully prepared for that."

After a scoreless opening stanza, Cindy Laurin put Ottawa on the board first at 7:42 of the middle period, assisted by Carol-Ann Upshall. Teammate Mélodie Bouchard then tallied the would-be game-winner less than two minutes later with a power-play marker at 9:36. Roxanne Rioux and Shanie Deschatelets earned the assists. McGill challenged the play to the officials, although there is no replay procedure in place.

"It looked to us like she kicked it in," explained Smith. "We asked the referees to discuss it and they felt that it went in off her leg and was a deflection, not a kick."

Gabrielle Davidson of Pte. Claire, Que., got one back for the Martlets on the power play at 15:01 of the middle stanza, assisted by Melodie Daoust of Valleyfield, Que., and Zoe Todd of Vancouver. It was Davidson's second goal of the playoffs and fourth in her last six games.

Despite spending most of the final period in the Ottawa zone, especially in the dying minutes after pulling netminder Tricia Deguire with 1:44 remaining, McGill couldn't complete a comeback. Deguire, a rookie from Sherbrooke, Que., made 27 saves on 29 shots in the loss, dropping her post-season record to 1-1

"Hockey's a momentum game and we're a momentum team," said Smith. "When we get it going our way then we're great but there have been a number of games this year where it's taken some time to get the momentum going in our favour. We need to take control over that, and that's what we'll do (Sunday)."

The Martlets were 1-for-3 on the power play and allowed one goal on four Gee-Gees opportunities, during a sequence in which McGill took three penalties in a 92-second span.
 
LINK TO COMPLETE BOXSCORE

SCORING SUMMARY
McGill 1 at Ottawa 2
(Saturday, February 25, 2017 - uOttawa Sports Complex @ Ottawa)

GOALS BY PERIOD:
McGill 0-1-0 -- 1
Ottawa 0-2-0 -- 2

1st Period-
No Scoring.
 
Penalties-Godbout-Parent Ott (boarding), 11:46; Neuwald Ott (interference), 15:35.

2nd Period-
1, Ottawa, Cindy Laurin 1 (Upshall), 7:42.
2, Ottawa, Mélodie Bouchard 1 (Rioux, Deschatelets), 9:36 (PP).
3, McGill, Gabrielle Davidson 2 (Daoust, Todd), 15:01 (PP).
 
Penalties-MacKenzie Mcg (interference), 9:22; Cotter Mcg (interference), 10:06; Daoust Mcg (boarding), 10:54; Godbout-Parent Ott (roughing), 13:19.

3rd Period-
No Scoring.
 
Penalties-Walker Mcg (bodychecking), 2:12; Daoust Mcg (slashing), 8:34; Houle Ott (roughing), 8:34.

Shots on Goal-
McGill 10-14-9 -- 33.
Ottawa 12-11-6 -- 29.

Power Play Opportunities-
McGill 1 / 3;
Ottawa 1 / 4.

Goalies-
McGill,
Tricia Deguire (L, 1-1-0, 29 shots-27 saves; 58:16).
Ottawa,
Maude Levesque-Ryan (W, 1-1-0, 33 shots-32 saves; 60:00).

Attendance: 125
Start: 1:59 PM
End: 3:58 PM
Length: 1:59

Referees-Brandy Dewar, Jeff Demers.
Linesmen-Colleen Thornburn, Mack Lewis.
 
THREE STARS:
1. OTT - 20 Mélodie Bouchard
2. OTT - 31 Maude Levesque-Ryan
3. OTT - 89 Cindy Laurin