MONTREAL -- Jade Downie-Landry tallied four points and Lea Dumais scored a pair of breakaway goals as sixth-ranked McGill tripled No. 5 Concordia 6-2 in an RSEQ women's hockey semifinal opener at Ed Meagher Arena, Thursday.
 
It was McGill's fourth consecutive road win the Stingers this season, improving their season series record to 4-2 and their head-to-head dossier to 86-45-3 in 134 meetings since 1997.
 
"I think we were due to score some goals, we've played so well in the last number of games and haven't scored a ton, today we did," said Martlet head coach Peter Smith, whose troops netted a single-game season high and had scored three or less in each of the previous six contests. "I thought it was nice to play a game where the players got rewarded for the effort that they put in, that's what you really appreciate seeing as a coach."
 
McGill had a lopsided 40-26 edge in shots, including a 21-6 effort in the second period. That despite being assessed seven of the game's eight penalties. The Martlets went 1-for-1 on the power-play and snuffed out six of seven shorthanded situations.

Downie-Landry, who hails from St. Jean sur Richelieu, Que., scored  at 3:57 of the middle stanza to put McGill ahead 4-1 and contributed three assists. The psychology junior won the conference scoring title with a career-high 23 points in 20 games and now leads the playoff scoring race.
 
"Jade played an excellent game, she generates a lot of offence and did a good job again tonight," said Smith of the conference all-star who was invited to a national team development camp last summer. "She's a play-maker, a good passer, sees the game well, protects the puck and shoots well. I give her a lot of credit for her improvement this year. It's really rewarding to see someone work that hard and reap the benefits."

Christiana Colizza of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., who had scored only once in the previous 16 games, opened the scoring at 1:10 of the first period to put the visitors up 1-0.  The Stingers tied the count when Lidia Fillion struck at 6:29.
 
Dumais, a 5-foot-6 forward from Beaconsfield, Que., then put McGill ahead 3-1 with consecutive goals at 8:22 and 13:42, the latter occurring when the Martlets were shorthanded by two players. It was McGill's first shorty of the season -- in 31 games overall -- and marked the first time in team history that they had accomplished that feat. During the regular season, the management junior finished fourth among the league's goal leaders with eight in 20 games.
 
"She scored on two breakaways, one was on a 3-on-5 situation and you don't see a lot of shorthanded goals when you're down by two," noted Smith. "She did a great job on both breakaways getting the puck in the back of the net."
 
Teammate Kellyane Lecours of Victoriaville, Que., put McGill ahead 5-1 with a power-play goal at 8:05 of the second period.  Concordia narrowed the gap to 5-2 when Audrey Belzile connected at 10:50 of the middle stanza. Freshman Laura Jardin of Calgary, Alta., put the game out of reach at 1:31 of the final period. It was her fourth career marker in 28 games overall.
 
Goaltender Tricia Deguire, a 5-foot-8 junior from Sherbrooke, Que., turned away 24 of 26 shots faced. It was her 95th career game for the two-time conference all-star and upped her career record to 56-35-1 overall, including a 6-3 mark in post-season play.

"Trish was solid back there, we got away from our game plan a little bit in the second period and she stood tall, made some really nice saves and controlled her rebounds," said Smith. "An all-around team effort, that's the beauty of our team we have great depth, everyone works hard and supports each other. Good things happen when that occurs."
 
Losing goaltender Katherine Purchase, a fifth-year senior, was beaten five times on 22 shots before being yanked at 8:05 of the middle frame. She was replaced by sophomore Alice Philbert who saved all but one of 18 shots faced.
 
McGill will host the second game of the series on Saturday, Feb. 21, at McConnell Arena. The opening faceoff is set for 2 p.m, following a men's playoff game versus Carleton at 7 p.m. The Redmen also won their semifinal opener on the road with a 3-1 victory, Thursday.
 
The winner of this series will not only advance to the RSEQ league championship series but also secure one of the two Quebec berths to the U SPORTS national championship in Charlottetown, P.E.I., March 14-17.
 
In the other RSEQ semifinal series, the top-seeded Montreal Carabins blanked fourth-place Ottawa 4-0.

SCORING SUMMARY

RSEQ ALL-STARS & AWARD WINNERS

RSEQ SCOREBOARD