PHOTO: As part of Concordia's "shoot for the cure" weekend, McGill's Olivia Atkinson (L) and her mother Kelli McClelland, along with Concordia's Brigitte Laganiere and her mother Collette Cyr took part in a pregame ceremony. Both mothers are battling breast cancer (PHOTO COURTESY CONCORDIA ATHLETICS)
MONTREAL --
Stéphanie Lalancette scored the game-winner as ninth-ranked Concordia defeated McGill 5-3 in RSEQ women's hockey at the Ed Meagher Arena on Saturday.
The Sherbrooke Street rival Stingers captured the season series 4-1 and improved to 43-82-3 in 128 head-to-head meetings since 1997, when women's hockey was formally sanctioned with a national championship.
The teams were tied at 1-1 after the opening period but Concordia took a 3-2 lead after two. McGill evened the score at 3-3 in the third but Lalancette's winner came with 6:22 remaining in the game and the Stingers added an empty-netter.
Rookie
Amanda Hadwen of Ottawa was a surprise starter in net for the Martlets who were without injured 'keeper
Tricia Deguire. Hadwen made 18 saves on 22 shots through 58 minutes as her record dropped to 1-2. Concordia's
Katherine Purchase stopped 19 of 22 chances at the other end of the ice as she improved to 9-4.
"I really liked our first period," said McGill head coach
Peter Smith. "We let it get away a little bit in the second and they're the kind of team where if you make a mistake in your own end, something bad's going to happen. We didn't make a lot of mistakes, but we got away from our attention to detail a little bit in the second period and they made us pay for it. It's that question again -- we've kind of talked about it all year -- it's about the consistency. We do a lot of real good things; we've got to make sure we're doing them all the time."
Rookie
Kellyane Lecours of Victoriaville, Que., had opened the scoring for the Martlets at 3:40 of the first, but
Audrey Belzile knotted things up for the home side at 12:08.
Marie-Pascale Bernier put Concordia ahead at 3:06 of the second.
Christiana Colizza, a freshman from Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., evened the score at 7:54, but
Claudia Dubois scored at 12:46 to send the Stingers into the third with a 3-2 edge.
McGill sophomore
Jade Downie-Landry of St. Jean sur Richelieu, Que., tied the game just 1:24 into the final frame, but Lalancette restored Concordia's lead before teammate
Devon Thompson added an emptynet insurance marker with 13 seconds left.
Both teams were perfect on four penalty kills.
"Our kill was good," said Smith. "We didn't get a puck in on the power-play but I thought it was pretty good, too."
McGill sits fourth in the Quebec league with an 8-8-2 record has two games remaining to catch third-place Ottawa (9-7-2). The Martlets visit league-leading Montreal (12-2-4) on Sunday (Feb. 11) at 2 p.m, then will host Carleton to close out the regular season on Feb. 17. The Stingers (13-4-1) play U de M on Feb. 16.
MARTLET MURMURS: McGill grad will be wearing #15 for Canada in their Olympic tournament debut against Russia on Sunday morning at 7 am. The game will be televised live on CBC. Also available via the CBC Olympic app.
2017-18 RSEQ WOMEN'S HOCKEY STANDINGS (20-game schedule)
| 1 |
Montreal |
18 |
12 |
2 |
4 |
28 |
0.778 |
47 |
32 |
4-0-0 |
9-1-0 |
159 |
| 2 |
Concordia |
18 |
13 |
4 |
1 |
27 |
0.750 |
60 |
39 |
3-0-0 |
8-1-1 |
128 |
| 3 |
Ottawa |
18 |
9 |
7 |
2 |
20 |
0.556 |
42 |
44 |
0-1-0 |
4-5-1 |
142 |
| 4 |
McGill |
18 |
8 |
8 |
2 |
18 |
0.500 |
45 |
45 |
0-2-0 |
5-4-1 |
172 |
| 5 |
Carleton |
18 |
3 |
14 |
1 |
7 |
0.194 |
23 |
57 |
0-12-1 |
0-9-1 |
168 |
