MONTREAL -- Netminder
Tricia Deguire made 36 saves and five different goal scorers struck paydirt as third-ranked McGill skated to a 5-1 victory over No.6 Concordia in RSEQ women's hockey at the Ed Meagher Arena, Saturday.
It was McGill's third straight win over the Stingers since a 5-3 loss on Feb. 10, 2018, and improved their head-to-head record against their cross-town rivals to 85-43-3 in 131 meetings since 1997, when women's hockey was formally sanctioned with a national championship.
McGill, which leads the Quebec league with a 9-2 record, was outplayed through the first 30 minutes and outshot 37-34 in the game but never trailed, thanks in large part to their goaltender. The Martlets led 2-1 after the first period, 3-1 after two, and potted two unanswered goals in the final stanza.
Deguire, a 5-foot-8 kinesiology junior from Sherbrooke, Que., played like President Donald Trump's proposed brick wall en route to improving her record to 9-2. She leads the Quebec conference in wins (9), shutouts (4), goals-against average (1.08), save percentage (0.963), and minutes played (665:46).
"Deguire got the player-of-the-game honours in our dressing room, she kept us in when we were not very good. She stood tall, handled the puck well, overall very sharp," said head coach
Peter Smith, whose troops had only played one exhibition contest since their last league game on Dec. 1. "It's been a long break, we had one scrimmage against the midget boys team (Jan. 5) and we showed a bit of rust today but hopefully it's all gone for our game in Ottawa tomorrow.
Eleven Martlets figured in the scoring
"Scoring five goals is huge and so was winning this game," said a relieved Smith, who acknowledged that they had dodged a bullet. "The girls are smart, they talked about it, realized it and even though they won a game 5-1 they know there are things they have to do better. "
Sophomore
Stephanie Desjardins of Grand Falls, N.B., opened the scoring on the Martlets first shot, only 57 seconds after the initial puck-drop. Teammate
Shana Walker, a senior from Toronto, made it 2-0 at 18:42 with what proved to be the game-winner.
But just 12 seconds later, Stingers sophomore forward
Lidia Fillion scored, narrowing the gap to 2-1.
Marika Labrecque, a sophomore from Lac Etchemin, Que., made it 3-1 at 13:41 of the second period, followed by junior
Jade Downie-Landry and freshman
Valerie Audet, who netted goals at 2:19 and 9:24, respectively, of the final stanza.
Downie-Landry, a native of St. Jean, Que., also collected an assist to maintain her grasp on the RSEQ conference scoring race. The 5-foot-9 forward has a 5-10-15 record in 11 games, one point ahead of Carabins forward
Jessica Cormier (7-7-14).
The Martlets were 1-for-4 on the power-play, while Concordia was 0-for-2.
Stingers sophomore goaltender
Alice Philbert was beaten five times on 28 shots and took the loss. She was relieved midway through the final stanza by fifth-year senior
Katherine Purchase, who saved all six shots faced in the final 10:23 of play.
Both teams return to the ice in less than 24 hours. McGill (9-2-0) plays Ottawa (2-9-0) in the nation's capital on Sunday at 2 p.m., while Carleton (2-8-0) confronts Concordia (5-4-1) at the Ed Meagher Arena in a 3 p.m. start.
LINK TO SCORING SUMMARY
2018-19 RSEQ Women's Hockey Standings
| 1 |
Montreal |
12 |
10 |
2 |
0 |
20 |
0.833 |
36 |
16 |
7-0-0 |
8-2-0 |
98 |
| 2 |
McGill |
11 |
9 |
2 |
0 |
18 |
0.818 |
33 |
12 |
3-0-0 |
8-2-0 |
58 |
| 3 |
Concordia |
11 |
5 |
4 |
2 |
12 |
0.545 |
27 |
24 |
0-2-0 |
4-4-2 |
62 |
| 4 |
Carleton |
11 |
2 |
8 |
1 |
5 |
0.227 |
15 |
36 |
0-1-0 |
2-7-1 |
124 |
| 5 |
Ottawa |
11 |
2 |
9 |
0 |
4 |
0.182 |
13 |
36 |
0-5-0 |
2-8-0 |
100 |
