MONTREAL -- Jade Downie-Landry continued to show her hot hand, netting a natural hat-trick, including the game-winner, as fifth-ranked McGill opened their Quebec women's hockey league championship series with a 4-2 triumph over the No.9 Montreal Carabins, Thursday, before a season-high crowd of about 300 at McConnell Arena.

It was the fifth straight win for the streaking Martlets, who improved to 3-0 in the post-season and could sweep the RSEQ's best-of-three series with a victory in Game 2 at CEPSUM Arena on Saturday at 2 p.m. If a rubber match is needed, it will be back at McConnell on Sunday at 2 p.m.

McGill has also won five straight over their arch-rivals from the other side of Mt. Royal, improving their lifetime head-to-head record to 53-29 in 82 meetings overall.

The game featured nine power-play chances and four goals with the extra attacker. The home side, which held a 31-25 shots advantage, went 2-for-5 while the Carabins were 2-for-4.
 
"We are playing with better structure and our (tremendous) progression from the start of the year to now has given us confidence," said bench boss Peter Smith, who was coaching in his 795th game overall at McGill. "This is such a hard-working group. We have a good plan and we stick with it. I think that's what makes us feel prepared and confident."
 
McGill team captain Emilia Cotter, who hails from Toronto, opened the scoring on the power-play at 7:37 of the first period. It was the 11th career goal in 177 games overall for the fifth-year defenceman who received the RSEQ Leadership and Community Service Award in a pre-game ceremony, where the conference laureates were announced.
 
Less than two minutes later, Carabins forward Catherine Dubois replied with a PP goal of her own on a wrap-a-round play from behind the net to knot the score at 9:01.
 
From there it became the "Downie-Landry Show" as the native of St. Jean, Que., netted a PP marker at 10:42 of the first period, followed by back-to-back goals in the middle period, at 17:01 and 19:56. It was her first-career hat-trick and improved her overall record to 72-89-161 in 135 appearances since joining the team in 2016.
 
"Montreal is a really good team, we give them a lot of credit, we knew they were going to come out hard and we knew what we had to do," said Downie-Landry, who has now merited first-team all-star honours for the second consecutive season.

Her third marker was a nifty set-up by linemates Kellyane Lecours and Marika Labrecque. "It was a beautiful pass, all I had to do was put it in the net," she said. "My teammates are giving me the shot lane and I'm just putting them in. Really, it's all my teammates."
 
Downie-Landry now leads the RSEQ playoff scoring race with seven points, including five goals in three games. The 23-year-old psychology senior has a current six-game point-scoring streak with a 7-5-12 record over that span. In the second semester, she has a 12-11-23 dossier in 12 contests.

"Jade was unbelievable, she has been so good this second half of the season, said Smith of his 5-foot-9 centre who was injured on an unpenalized hit the first league game in October and struggled through the fall semester to get back in form. "She's got her health back and she's just flying out there. Our entire group was in the game today and Jade led the way."
 
The Carabins narrowed the gap to 4-2 when defenceman Kim Poirier scored another power-play goal at 3:30 of the final stanza.
 
Goaltender Tricia Deguire of Sherbrooke Que. kicked aside 23 of 25 shots faced and improved her lifetime record to 75-48-1 overall in a McGill uniform, including a 13-7 career mark in the post-season. 
 
Carabins starter Maude Trevisan was beaten four times on 25 shots before being given the hook after the second intermission for Aube Racine, who blocked all six shots faced. She was pulled for an extra attacker in the final three minutes of play but the ploy proved to be too little, too late.
 
MARTLET MURMURS: Among the former Martlets spotted in the stands was Adrienne Crampton, Michelle Daigneault and Gabrielle Davidson... Five Martlets were honoured in the pre-game RSEQ awards ceremony. Aside from the aforementioned leadership award to captain Emilia Cotter, Jade Downie-Landry and Tricia Deguire both merited first-team all-conference status, while forward Lea Dumais and rearguard Kate Devries were named to the second-team.

SCORING SUMMARY