MONTREAL -- Catherine Dubois scored the game-winner on a power-play in double-overtime as sixth-ranked Montreal survived a scare and edged fourth-seeded McGill 4-3 to claim their RSEQ women's hockey semifinal series, Sunday, at Arena CEPSUM.

The Carabins, who won the series opener 5-3 at home on Feb. 22 and lost 5-2 at McGill in Game 2 on Friday, will move on to face second-seeded Concordia in the RSEQ final. Both Montreal and the Stingers will also advance to the U SPORTS National Championship.

Dubois' winning tally came 15:08 into the second extra session, scored on the power play after McGill was penalized for having too many players on the ice during the 4-on-4 frame.

The heartbreaking loss marks the first time since 2013 that the Martlets have not qualified for Nationals and just the second time since 2002. The last time that McGill failed to reach the Quebec league final was in 2003-04.

"It was a phenomenal game," said McGill head coach Peter Smith, whose troops led 1-0 after the first period and found themselves tied 2-2 after two and 3-3 after three. "Our group played extremely well. We had a number of scoring chances in the overtime and we didn't bury them, but I'm really proud of the way that we played and of the development of the team over the course of the year.

"We've got a real young group and in the last two games we really came together and played two very solid hockey games. It's unfortunate we couldn't get the win today but I told our girls to hold their heads high. They should be real proud of the effort that they had in the game today."

McGill freshman Kellyane Lecours, a 5-foot-5 forward from Victoriaville, Que., had opened the scoring at 15:12 of the first period.

But Valérie St-Onge evened things up for the Carabins at 3:11 of the second. Sophomore Jade Downie-Landry of St. Jean sur Richelieu, Que., put the visitors back in front at 9:02, but Emmanuelle Passard scored at 16:03 to send the teams into the intermission tied 2-2.
Dubois gave Montreal its first lead of the contest 4:12 into the third, but a power-play marker from Downie-Landry at 10:07 sent the teams to overtime.

The initial 10-minute extra period solved nothing and it took more than 25 minutes of added time to decide a winner in the wide-open, back-and-forth affair. The Carabins led 48-39 in shots on net.

McGill netminder Tricia Deguire, a 5-foot-8 sophomore from Sherbrooke, Que., made 44 shots in a losing cause. Marie-Pier Chabot turned aside 36 of 39 shots to earn the win.

McGill was 1-for-3 on the power play and 3-for-4 on the penalty kill.

The Martlets wrapped up their campaign with a 16-21 record overall, including a 14-15 mark against Canadian university opponents. Normally a powerhouse at home, the Martlets posted a less-than-stellar 6-11 record at McConnell Arena.

The team, which struggled to recover from last year's  graduation of snipers Melodie Daoust and Gabrielle Davidson, is expected to lose just one player this spring. Cora Constantinou, a political science and economics senior from Scarborough, Ont., is the lone graduating player. She was injured early on and only dressed in 12 games overall, including just three in the regular season.

"The big thing for us was that we lacked consistency early in the year," Smith reflected. "We had a lot of real good performances and then some that weren't up to where we wanted them to be. Playing a full 60-minute game was a little bit of a challenge for this young group but I liked the way we played at the end of the year. We have almost everybody back next year and as much as this loss hurts, I know that they're going to remember it for a long time and it's going to be highly motivating for them."

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