MONTREAL -- Three products of the McGill University women's hockey program  -- Kim St-Pierre, Catherine Ward and Charline Labonté -- were among a dazzling array of stars unveiled Tuesday, when TSN announced their All-Time Team Canada women's roster.

St-Pierre, a native of Chateaguay, Que., and Ward, who hails from Town of Mt. Royal, Que., are past inductees to the McGill Sports Hall of Fame. Labonté, from Boisbriand, Que., becomes eligible for the McGill pantheon in 2022. All three were inducted last year to the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame in Toronto.

St. Pierre, a three-time Olympic gold medalist, is Team Canada's all-time goalie leader in wins (64) won a record nine medals at the IIHF world championships and played a major role in the 2002 Olympic gold victory over USA, stopping 27 of 29 shots and earning tournament best goalie honours. At McGill, she earned a kinesiology degree McGill in 2004 and single-handedly turned the women's hockey program around. The team's starting goalie for five seasons, from 1998 to 2004, she also played briefly with the men's squad. In 103 career games with the Martlets, she had 99 starts and posted a 50-40-12 overall record with 27 shutouts and a 2.13 goals-against average. She registered a plethora of McGill records, including a single-game mark of 62 saves at Concordia on Oct. 25, 1998. St-Pierre was the Quebec conference rookie of the year in 1998-99 and was twice voted as the league's player of the year (2000-01, 2002-03). A four-time all-Canadian and Team MVP, she received the Brodrick Trophy in 2002-03 as CIS hockey player of the year, along with the Gladys Bean Award as McGill's top female athlete and the BLG Jim Thompson Trophy as CIS athlete of the year, in any sport.

Ward, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, was a tournament-leading plus-15 in the 2010 Games triumph and was highly regarded among rearguards in both style and impact. In 2009, she entered the McGill Hall at age 32, becoming the University's youngest laureate. The 5-foot-6 blue-liner graduated in only three years from McGill with a commerce degree in 2009. With the Martlets, she merited all-conference and All-Canadian status in each of her three seasons. Voted Quebec conference and CIS national rookie of the year in 2006-07, she helped McGill win three straight league titles, in addition to one silver and back-to-back gold medals at the Nationals, where she earned CIS all-tournament honours in each of her first two appearances and merited tourney MVP status in her final one. Ward registered school records for most career goals, assists and points by a defender, posting a 34-104-138 record in 110 games overall, with 52 penalty minutes.

Labonté was double golden at the IIHF world championships and garnered three Olympic gold medals, in Turino, Vancouver and Sochi. She ranks second among Team Canada netminders in wins (45) and shutouts (16). Labonté played at McGill from 2006 to 2012, where she owns almost every goaltending record and led the school to CIS national titles in 2008, 2009 and 2011. She initially graduated with a physical education degree in 2011, then followed that with a master's in sports psychology in 2015. A five-time Quebec league all-star, she is one of very few McGillians to merit all-Canadian status five times. Labonté set the CIS all-time record with 37 career shutouts in regular-season play. A 5-foot-9 puck-stopper, she posted a spectacular 160-17-3 record and 81 shutouts in 180 starts overall, with a stingy 0.98 goals against average  and a stellar .948 save percentage.


SOURCE:
Earl Zukerman
Communications Officer
Athletics & Recreation
McGill University
514-398-7012 (Tel.)
m.athletics.mcgill.ca (mobile website)
www.mcgillathletics.ca
earl.zukerman@mcgill.ca