MONTREAL - Claudia Dubois of Chicoutimi, Que., scored twice as the No.1 Concordia Stingers defeated seventh-ranked McGill 4-1 in RSEQ women's hockey at Ed Meagher Arena, Saturday afternoon.
 
The Stingers have now secured four of their five regular-season match-ups with the Martlets and improved their record to 14-2-2 on the season, while McGill dropped to 9-5-4. The contest marked the 140th matchup between the crosstown rivals since 1997 as McGill's lifetime record fell to 88-49-3.
 
"We came out flat and I'm not sure why," said Martlet head coach Peter Smith. "You have to give Concordia credit, I thought they played really well and were certainly hungrier in the first two periods than we were."
 
McGill, who were outshot 29-17, were missing key parts of their attack, which accounted for 13 goals or 28 per cent of their offence. Sniper Jade Downie-Landry and defensive forward Sidonie Chard were both serving an automatic one-game suspension from penalties incurred last week and power forward Kellyanne Lecours was out with an undisclosed injury, both a consequence of their game against UdeM on Jan, 31.
 
Concordia forward Sandrine Lavictoire registered her first of the season at 13:19 of the opening period to put the visitors ahead 1-0 and just three minute later, Dubois widened the gap with what proved to be the game-winner.
 
Marika Labrecque of Lac Etchemin, Que., responded with 72 seconds remaining in the first period, narrowing the gap to 2-1.  It was her fifth of the regular season and improved her career totals to 26-42-68 in 96 appearances overall for the Martlets.
 
Dubois potted an insurance marker for the Stingers at 1:23 of the second period and teammate Amelie Lemay closed out the scoring on the power-play at 13:33 of the middle stanza.
 
"I thought we had a good third period but by that time, the score was 4-1 and a huge mountain to climb against a team like that," said Smith. "It was a bit of an aberration, to be honest with you."
 
McGill went 0-for-2 on the power play and killed of two of three penalties.
 
Concordia goalie Alice Philbert blocked 16 of 17 shots faced as her record improved to 11-3 on the season.
 
McGill netminder Tricia Deguire made 25 saves on 29 shots as her record fell to 9-7.
 
"We made mistakes that were uncharacteristic and it was too bad because I though Tricia made some really sharp saves," noted Smith. "We gave some glorious opportunities to Concordia and that's not really the way we play. You know it's one of those games, we play again tomorrow and we need to learn from that one and move on for the game tomorrow."
 
Both teams return to the ice in less than 24 hours, Concordia (14-2-2) hosts Ottawa (9-7-1) and The Martlets (9-5-4) play Carleton at McConnell Arena, both with a 3 p.m. puck-drop.
 
In an rare occurrence, it will be preceded by a rescheduled men's hockey game between UQTR and McGill, due a postponement from the snowstorm on Friday. The men's afair is slated for 11:15 a.m.

SCORING SUMMARY

RSEQ STANDINGS & STATS