CHARLOTTETOWN -- Stephanie Desjardins scored the game-winner at 15:38 of the third period and Tricia Deguire posted a 25-save shutout in her 100th career game, as the McGill University women's hockey team blanked top-seeded Alberta 1-0, Saturday, and advanced to the gold medal contest at the U SPORTS Final Eight national championship.

The fifth-seeded Martlets will take a 23-12-1 overall record into the finale when they confront No.3 Guelph (28-10-0) in Sunday's championship game at 5 p.m. (Eastern) at MacLauchlan Arena in Charlottetown. McGill has reached the national final nine times, where they have struck gold on four occasions. They have also settled for five silvers and five bronzes.

The semifinal result avenged a bitter 2-1 double overtime loss to then-underdog Alberta in the 2017 gold medal game. The Martlets are now 3-7 against their bitter rivals in games played at the nationals, including victories in three of the last four confrontations.

McGill, the RSEQ conference finalists, battled the Canada West champs for every inch of ice and it finally paid off with less than five minutes remaining, after forward Laura Jardin's pass from the left corner found Desjardins alone in the slot. The 5-foot-4 forward from Grand Falls, N.B., roofed a wrist-shot to the top right corner, over the outstretched glove of goaltender Kirsten Chamberlin.

"It's really hard to explain, it's a roller-coaster of emotion," said Desjardins, a 19-year-old industrial relations sophomore. "In the (RSEQ) playoffs against Concordia we had a big comeback, so we're used to being on our toes."
 
Desjardins, who has nine goals in 33 games overall this season and 15 tallies in 67 career contests, added that her third period marker was the biggest of her varsity career.
 
"It was as if the whole world stopped spinning, it was just a blur really," she said. "It was a great pass from Laura (Jardin) and I was just in the right spot at the right time and I just shot it and hoped for the best."
 
After a 10-2 quarter-final win over St. Thomas, the night prior, the Martlets were dealt a challenging semifinal matchup against the best defence in the country in the Pandas, making goals hard to come by.

"As a team, we have a lot of confidence in the way that we play and prepare," said McGill head coach Peter Smith. "(Alberta is) a tough team to get shots on goal -- we had some good attempts but they clog up the middle of the ice and they swarm in their defensive zone very effectively. They work hard and block lots of shots... It was a game of two good teams playing with structure."

"Ultimately we had a... good zone exit on a lob out of our zone and Laura Jardin was terrific on the forecheck to chase that thing down and get it to Desjadins who scored a beautiful goal. It was a real hard-working, blue-collar type of goal."
 
Aside from a couple good chances in the opening period from U SPORTS player of the year Alex Poznikoff, both teams battled hard defensively and limited one another's opportunities to take the lead. The Pandas were credited with the first five shots but by the intermission, the shots were seven apiece in an evenly-matched period.
 
McGill had their best chance of the game midway through the second, when Lea Dumais took a long feed and went in alone for the breakaway, only to get denied by Chamberlin, who slid to her right and made the big save on Dumais' backhand attempt.
 
After two, the Pandas and Martlets were still knotted up at zeros.  The deadlock was finally broken by Desjardins, who gave credit to her teammates, saying this is the best team she's ever been part of.
 
"We're really there to support each other," she said. "We keep ourselves accountable, making sure we're there mentally and physically."

The final shots tally had Alberta edging McGill 25-24. Both teams went scoreless on the power-play, with the Martlets going 0-for-3 and the Pandas 0-for-2.

"That was a good time and place to get a shutout," Smith said, when advised that his goaltender was playing in her 100th game for McGill. "I thought Deguire was awesome. She had a smile on her face, was relaxed and focussed out there... She was just so well-positioned in the game that she made every save look easy."
 
The stage is now set and the Martlets have a dance date with the Guelph Gryphons, but only one will be crowned as the belle of the ball. The game will be streamed live for $10 on the U SPORTS pay-per-view site.
 
"I'm pretty confident with the girls and what we have going," added Desjardins.
 
The Gryphons, who won the OUA title, have an unblemished 7-0 mark in post-season play, while the Martlets are 4-2 in the playoffs. McGill is 6-3-1 lifetime against Guelph, outscoring the Gryphons 45-27. The last time these teams met, Guelph came away with a 5-3 victory, despite being outshot 39-23, at Concordia's Theresa Humes tourney on Dec. 31, 2017.

SCORING SUMMARY

Schedule & Results

USPORTS.LIVE
 

PLAYERS OF THE GAME
McGill: Stéphanie Desjardins
Alberta: Kristen Chamberlin