MONTREAL -- Abby Howland scored at 95 seconds of overtime as the Toronto Varsity Blues rallied with a pair of late goals to defeat McGill 2-1 in women's hockey preseason play during the final round of Concordia's Theresa Humes Cup tournament, Sunday.

It marked the fifth setback in as many outings for the Martlets, who dropped Friday's tourney opener 4-2 to UNB and lost 3-0 to UBC on Saturday.
 
A victory looked almost certain for McGill until the dying moments of the game. After a goal-less first period, freshman forward Sarah-Maude Lavoie from Victoriaville, Que., opened the scoring with a power-play marker at 9:20 of the middle period, her first in a McGill jersey. The product of College Limoilou was assisted by Makenzie McCallum of Morden, Man.
 
That goal stood up until the 18:50 mark of the third period. when Toronto pulled its goalie for an extra attacker and Lauren MacDonnell struck pay-dirt to force overtime.
 
U of T netminder Madeline Albert stopped 20 of 21 to register the win, while Sophie Lajeunesse of Calgary, Alta., blocked 16 of 18 shots in  a losing cause.
 
McGill, which had a 21-18 advantage in shots, went 1-for-3 on the power-play and successfully killed off all four penalties.

The Martlets were again without the services of power forward Marika Labrecque, who missed all three games with an undisclosed injury. The fifth-year veteran from Lac Etchemin, Que., was injured in practice after being named as McGill's female athlete of the week last Monday in the wake of scoring three goals and adding an assist in two games. Labrecque then became the first woman in McGill history to compete with another varsity team in the same week, when she played with the golf team during a tournament in Trois-Rivieres. In 133 career games overall with the hockey Martlets, the 5-foot-5 centre has tallied 38 goals and 110 points with 231 penalty minutes.

McGill will continue its preseason schedule when hosting the Waterloo Warriors on Saturday, Oct. 4 at McConnell Arena with a 2 p.m. puck-drop. It will be their last home game prior to the regular season opener against Bishop's on Oct. 21. Before then, the Martlets will be heading stateside for three games against Ivy League opponents, beginning with Cornell (Oct. 7), then Yale (Oct. 8) and Dartmouth (Oct. 9).

SCORING SUMMARY

MARTLETS TEAM ROSTER


FOR MORE INFO CONTACT:
Earl Zukerman
Sports Information Officer
Athletics & Recreation
McGill University
514-398-7012 (Tel.)
www.mcgillathletics.ca
earl.zukerman@mcgill.ca