Rough start to season for women’s hockey

The Concordia Stingers women’s hockey team outplayed the Carleton Ravens for 40 minutes on Sunday afternoon at the Carleton Ice House. Unfortunately, two goals in the second period were all the Ravens would need in a 3-1 victory to pull away from Concordia and Ottawa for second place in the Quebec Student Sports Federation conference.
The Stingers weren’t hurt by an opening period where they served two penalties in the game’s first five minutes and were outshot 12-7. “I thought we got off to a slow start,” said Stingers head coach Les Lawton. “But we dominated for the last two periods.we’re doing good things out there.”
“I don’t understand why it takes goals against us to get us going,” said Stingers forward Angela Di Stasi, who scored Concordia’s only goal on a deflection of a shot by Catherine Desjardins. “We need to have the passion from the start,”
Di Stasi’s goal is an example of what the Stingers need to do more of. “We need to crash the net, get in front of the goalie,” she said. “Not every goal is going to be the most magnificent goal you’ve ever seen.”
Carleton scored their two goals early in the second period. The opener was scored on a wrist shot by Kristen Marson that was deflected by the defender and went over Audrey Doyon-Lessard’s blocker. That was followed up by a Jessica Bradley shot from the point that was tipped in by Tara O’Reilly to make it 2-0 Carleton.
Right after the Stingers had great pressure on the power play by the unit of Di Stasi, Tawnya Danis, Donna Ringrose, Rose Healy and Victoria Johnstone. However the pressure led to few shots and no goals, as the game remained 2-0 after two periods. In the second period a Carleton forward ran into Doyon-Lessard, forcing her to leave the game and be replaced by Meggy Hatin-Léveillée. No penalty was called on the play. “The ref told me she was trying to stop and that there was no intent to injure,” Lawton said while adding that by definition, the intent is not necessary for a penalty to be called for goaltender interference.
The third period saw chances for the Stingers to pull closer. When two straight power plays went for naught, a third led to Di Stasi’s goal. That would be as close as the Stingers would come. With just over five minutes left in the game, Marson scored her second goal of the game over Hatin-Léveillée’s glove after a turnover in the Stinger zone.
On Friday night, the Stingers met the No. 2 ranked McGill Martlets for the first time this season. Hatin-Léveillée made 36 saves in a 4-0 loss for the Stingers. Martlets defenceman Catherine Ward scored three goals, including a beautiful coast-to-coast effort that saw her put the puck past the Concordia netminder. Charline Labonté made nine saves for the shutout.
“We’re a better team than we were last year,” Lawton said. “But the results are the same as last year. The challenge for us is to stay positive, and take the positives and not get frustrated,” he said.
The Stingers next game will be Saturday afternoon following the football semi-final game between Bishop’s and Concordia at the Ed Meagher arena.