MONTREAL -- Five different scorers found the back of the net as No.6 Montreal defeated McGill 5-3 in Game 1 of the best-of-three RSEQ women's hockey semifinals, Thursday, at Arena CEPSUM.
The Martlets now face a must-win situation in Game 2 at McConnell Arena on Saturday at 2 pm if they want to force a rubber match on Sunday afternoon back at CEPSUM.
The top-seeded Carabins outshot their guests 37-21 and improved their overall record to 22-45 in 67 head-to-head meetings with the Martlets.
"It was obviously not a good start," said McGill head coach
Peter Smith. "The first 20 minutes we didn't show up. We had a real great second period and then in the third they kind of shut us down a bit and we didn't generate as much offence as we would've liked. But there were certainly some good things that I saw in this game. The players have to believe. Our young group is a good one but they've got to believe in themselves. It took them a long time in the game tonight to gain their confidence.
"We need to start the game at two o'clock on Saturday," he stressed.
Alexandra Labelle had put the Carabins ahead 1-0 just four minutes after puck drop and
Estelle Duvin followed that up at 6:01.
Jessica Cormier tripled the advantage at 10:21.
It seemed like it would be more of the same in the second after
Marie-Pier Dubé scored just 21 seconds into the period to give the hosts a comfortable 4-0 lead. But Martlets sophomore
Jade Downie-Landry of St. Jean sur Richelieu, Que., responded at 4:37 to put her team on the board. Rookie
Stephanie Desjardins of Grand Falls, N.B., added another at 10:34 and fellow freshman
Marika Labrecque of Lac Etchemin, Que., made it three uninterrupted for McGill at the 16-minute mark to narrow the gap to one.
However, the Carabins put the game on ice when
Jade Vix potted the only goal of the third period, at 9:27.
Martlets goaltender
Tricia Deguire, a 5-foot-8 sophomore from Sherbrooke, Que., stopped 32 of 37 shots in defeat.
Marie-Pier Chabot made 18 saves on 21 shots for Montreal.
McGill was 0-for-1 on the power play and perfect on three kills.
2017-18 RSEQ FINAL REGULAR SEASON WOMEN'S HOCKEY STANDINGS
| 1 |
Montreal |
20 |
14 |
2 |
4 |
32 |
0.800 |
60 |
34 |
6-0-0 |
9-1-0 |
167 |
| 2 |
Concordia |
20 |
14 |
4 |
2 |
30 |
0.750 |
65 |
44 |
4-0-1 |
7-1-2 |
138 |
| 3 |
Ottawa |
20 |
10 |
7 |
3 |
23 |
0.575 |
44 |
47 |
1-0-1 |
3-5-2 |
150 |
| 4 |
McGill |
20 |
9 |
9 |
2 |
20 |
0.500 |
48 |
57 |
1-0-0 |
6-4-0 |
184 |
| 5 |
Carleton |
20 |
3 |
15 |
2 |
8 |
0.200 |
25 |
60 |
0-13-2 |
0-8-2 |
174 |
