MONTREAL – Goaltender Alice Philbert of St. Bruno de Montarville, Que., posted a 33-save shutout and Amélie Lemay scored the overtime winner with 23 seconds left on the clock as No.1 ranked Concordia pulled off a 1-0 squeaker over fourth-ranked McGill in a women's hockey duel at the Ed Meagher Arena, Friday.
 
McGill, which has now dropped two consecutive games, fell to 2-1-2 in the RSEQ conference. Concordia marches on with a 5-0 record and preserved its first-place position in the Quebec league standings. McGill still holds a 87-45-5 in 137 lifetime meetings versus the Stingers since 1997.

"We're in a bit of a scoring drought so that's something we have to keep working at," said McGill bench boss Peter Smith, whose team is averaging 1.4 goals per game and competed without injured sniper Jade Downie-Landry.  "But I thought we controlled the play in five-on-five situations and played in their end a lot of the time."
 
Concordia had a 39-33 edge in shots, including a 15-10 effort in the third period. A factor in the shots tally was that the Martlets were not provided any power-play opportunities. That said, they did snuff out all six shorthanded situations.
 
Lemay of Drumondville, Que., scored at 4:37 of the first overtime period on a 2-on-1 rush with Marie-Pascal Bernier, who drew an assist on the winner. McGill netminder Trisha Deguire made an initial save but the sophomore forward jammed the crease and stuffed the puck in on a rebound, beating Deguire through the five-hole.
 
Deguire of Sherbrooke, Que., saved 38 of 39 shots through 64:37 as her record dropped to 2-3. With her first shutout of the season, Philbert improved to 5-0.
 
"It's disappointing that we lost that game but if you look at the process, I think we were very good," noted Smith. "It was a solid effort by everybody in a red uniform out there."

Both teams are back in action on Sunday (Nov. 10), when the Martlets (2-1-2) face Carleton (0-4-0) and Concordia (5-0) hosts the Montréal Carabins (3-1-1).  UdeM suffered their first regulation loss on Friday, a stunning 2-1 set back on the road against Ottawa (2-2-1), which made a surprising coaching change earlier in the day.
 
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