MONTREAL --
Stephanie Desjardins of Grand Falls, N.B., scored the game-winner at 2:31 of overtime as No. 3 ranked McGill defeated the Carleton Ravens 4-3 in RSEQ women's hockey Friday night at the Ice House.
The result was McGill's eighth consecutive win over the Ravens, improving their head-to-head record to 97-4-1 in 102 meetings overall.
"We gave up way too much in the first two periods but in overtime, we scored a really nice goal," said Martlets head coach
Peter Smith. "Carleton turned it over in the neutral zone and we had a two-on-one, Desjardins, who was skating down the left wing, faked a pass to
Nicole Howlett and fired a rocket over the goaltender's (far-side) shoulder. A great shot and a good win."
It was only the second goal of the season for Desjardins, a 5-foot-4 sophomore forward who has six points in 12 regular season games and a 12-13-25 career record in 54 contests overall.
Marika Labrecque from Lac Etchemin, Que., added a pair of power-play goals as the second-place Martlets improved to 10-3 in the Quebec conference, two points shy of division-leading Montreal (11-2).
The Martlets went 2-for-7 on the power-play and killed both of their penalties.
Lea Dumais of Beaconsfield, Que., opened the scoring for McGill, capitalizing only 50 seconds into the first period,
"We had a better start then expected -- scored on our second shift -- despite a bit of a rough voyage to get to the rink," said Smith. "The bus was an hour and a half late but our first period was pretty good. We made a couple of mistakes in our defensive zone, it ended up 2-2 at the end of the first. I didn't like our second period. We were not sharp. In the third, we came on real strong and scored a nice power play goal. We couldn't quite bury our chances but we limited them to four shots which is our kind of hockey."
Labrecque, a 5-foot-5 sophomore education student, recorded her first power-play goal of the night at 12:15 of the opening period, making it 2-1. She scored again with the extra attacker at 8:31 of the final stanza, which tied the game up 3-3.
"Labrecque had lots of energy, played with good structure and shot the puck way more than she usually does," said
Smith. "She's a good play-maker and today she took her shots when she needed to, scoring two nice goals on the power-play."
Carleton scorers included
Shannon Pearson, Amy Doherty, and
Hannah Dinovitzer who tallied a shorthanded marker to give the Ravens a 3-2 lead at 17:21 of the middle frame.
That held up until midway through the third when Labrecque's marker forced a four-on-four overtime session.
Martlets netminder
Tricia Deguire, a junior from Sherbrooke, Que., saved 27 of 30 shots for the victory between the pipes, improving to 10-3 on the season. The 5-foot-10 netminder ranks second in the country with a stingy .955 save percentage. She also leads the Quebec conference in wins (10), goals-against average (1.30), shutouts (4), games (13) and minutes played (786:27).
Katelyn Steele, the Ravens fifth-year 'keeper, turned aside 35 of 39 shots in a losing cause as her record tumbled to 2-10.
McGill remains overnight in Ottawa to play the Gee-gees on Saturday (Jan. 20) at the Minto Sports Complex in a 2 p.m. start. Carleton, which sits fifth in the league with a 2-9-2 record, hosts the Montreal Carabins (11-2-0) on Sunday Jan, 21 at 2 p.m.
SCORING SUMMARY
2018-19 RSEQ Women's Hockey Standings
| 1 |
Montreal |
13 |
11 |
2 |
0 |
22 |
0.846 |
39 |
18 |
8-0-0 |
8-2-0 |
106 |
| 2 |
McGill |
13 |
10 |
3 |
0 |
20 |
0.769 |
37 |
17 |
1-0-0 |
7-3-0 |
70 |
| 3 |
Concordia |
13 |
6 |
4 |
3 |
15 |
0.577 |
35 |
27 |
1-0-1 |
5-2-3 |
68 |
| 4 |
Ottawa |
11 |
3 |
8 |
0 |
6 |
0.273 |
15 |
36 |
1-0-0 |
3-7-0 |
108 |
| 5 |
Carleton |
13 |
2 |
9 |
2 |
6 |
0.231 |
18 |
46 |
0-2-1 |
2-6-2 |
154 |
