MONTREAL -- Kellyane Lecours of Victoriaville, Que., tallied twice and added a helper as No.6 ranked McGill cruised to a 6-1 victory over the Long Island University Sharks to open the 52nd annual Theresa Humes women's hockey tournament at the Ed Meagher Arena, Saturday.

It was the first-ever meeting between these teams as McGill improved to 53-69-10 overall versus NCAA teams. The Sharks have moved up to NCAA Div. 1 this season, where they currently own a 5-13 record overall. McGill improved to 11-8 this season, including a 2-1 mark against NCAA competition.

The Martlets, who had a 51-16 edge in shots, jumped into a 4-0 lead in the opening period. After a scoreless middle stanza, McGill won the final period 2-1. The six-goal outburst matched the team's second-highest offensive output this season and the most since a 6-0 win at Dartmouth on Oct. 13.

"I was happy to see us score four goals in the first period but I didn't think our (structural) habits were great," said McGill head coach Peter Smith, whose troops gave up a half-dozen odd-man breaks.  "We addressed that in the intermission and played a more disciplined game the rest of the way.

"But it was our first game back after a month off and I was relatively happy. We were hungry around the net and had a real shot-mentality. Those were certainly positives to take away from this game. Scoring goals in the first semester was a real challenge for us. So to see us getting six in a game -- I don't care who you're playing -- that's a good thing."

McGill opened the scoring just 47 seconds after the opening puck drop when defenceman Emilia Cotter wired a shot past beleaguered goalie Mia McLeod. Cotter leads all McGill blueliners with five goals in 19 contests overall. The assists went to Lecours and Kess Notargiacomo, a sophomore rearguard who registered her first career point. 
 
Lecours then connected for the game-winner at 7:44 to make it 2-0 and later put McGill ahead 5-0 at 2:37 of the final period.  She now has eight goals and 15 points in 18 games overall.

Other McGill marksmen were Stephanie Desjardins (her third), rookie Anna MacCara (2nd) and Lea Dumais, who is now tied for the team scoring lead with nine goals in 15 games overall.

Goaltender Tricia Deguire kicked aside 15 of 16 shots for the victory, improving her record to 6-7 overall. The kinesiology senior from Sherbrooke, Que., made at least a half-dozen huge saves on odd-man breaks. However, Deguire lost her shutout bid at 17:50 of the final period when Renee Hoffmann re-directed a shot from rearguard Issy Lebrun.

McLeod made 45 saves in a losing cause between the pipes for the Sharks.

The Martlets, who didn't draw any penalties for the first time this season, were 0-for-3 on the power-play. The last time that McGill was not penalized in a game was on Jan. 5, 2019 when they played the Lac St. Louis Tigers, a boys AA team. McGill's last penalty-free game against a university opponent was five years ago in a 4-2 loss at Princeton on Oct. 11, 2014.

McGill (1-0) now has a second-round bye because a team representing the Professional Women's Hockey Players Association withdrew from the tourney in order to play Minnesota of the NWHL at Place Bell in Laval, a game that drew 3,267 fans on Saturday.  McGill will confront the No.5 ranked UPEI Panthers (0-1) on Monday at 11 a.m. in a game that was moved up an hour in the wake of a weather forecast calling for   15-25 centimetres of snow. The Panthers fell 4-1 to top-ranked Concordia (1-0) to open the tourney.

MARTLET MURMURS: Spotted in the crowd was former McGill forward Francois Lajeunesse (1993-1997) who was visiting from Calgary. He brought his daughter Sophie, a prospective goaltender recruit hoping to play for the Martlets in 2021.

SCORING SUMMARY

THERESA HUMES TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE & RESULTS
(@ Concordia's Ed Meagher Arena)

Saturday, Dec. 28
Concordia 4, UPEI 1
McGill 6, Long Island 1

Sunday, Dec. 29
Bishop's vs. UPEI – 2 p.m.
Long Island vs. Concordia – 5 p.m.

Monday, Dec. 30
UPEI vs. McGill - 11 a.m. (REVISED)
Bishop's vs. Concordia – 1:30 p.m. 

The Ed Meagher Arena is located at 7200 Sherbrooke St. W. on Concordia University's Loyola campus.