Playing their second game in 18 hours, the Concordia Stingers women’s hockey team had come off their first win of the season, a tough fight, winning on the road against the Ottawa Gee-Gees 3-2 in a sudden-death shootout, winning in the ninth round.
McGill started the game with a power play goal by Melodie Daoust, barely three minutes in. Less than 10 seconds later on the next faceoff, the puck went deep into the McGill zone and goaltender Andrea Weckman misplayed the puck, landing right in front of the net. After a couple of whacks, rookie Kim Boismenu potted the puck into the empty cage, tying the game less than three minutes after the start.
Midway through the first, on a Concordia powerplay, McGill took over the puck and Bianca Della Porta spotted an open Erika Pyke who gave them the lead. A little more than a minute later, Leslie Oles gave McGill a two-goal lead with her first of three on the afternoon.
Stingers goaltender Carolanne Lavoi-Pilon seemed off her game, but quickly got back on her feet, finishing with 39 saves.
“It’s always hard (versus McGill), but you learn to challenge the player with the puck and follow them, give them a mental read,” said Lavoi-Pilon. “Once you have that down, then it feels easier with the reflexes. You have the fire to stop everything.”
Midway through the second period, Concordia was playing with immense pressure. McGill was unable to capitalize or get their plays together, and the Stingers got one back when the top line of Emilie Bocchia, Alyssa Sherrard and Veronique Laramee Paquette connected yet again with Laramee Paquette netting her fourth goal of the year.
Seven minutes into the final period Sherrard connected off a back-door pass behind the net from Bocchia, tying the game at three and sending the fans at Ed Meagher into a frenzy.
“Lately we’ve been too passive, but today we were aggressive, fighting for loose pucks, won battles,” said Bocchia, who had two assists on the afternoon. “Tying the game and creating turnovers was excellent.”
Very late in the game, with the crowd on their feet, a faceoff in the Concordia defensive zone was won by McGill’s Daoust who passed it to teammate Katia Clément-Heydra who spotted an open Oles who wristed a goal past Lavoi-Pilon with only 1:55 left in the game. Fourty-eight seconds later, she completed her hat trick, jumping into her teammates arms as they avoided a near upset.
“We played with a lot of emotion – two games in 18 hours,” said Stingers head coach Les Lawton. “We still battled hard for 58 minutes, I’m very happy with the effort of all the girls.”
The Stingers will have another double-header next weekend. They head to Carleton on Saturday for a 7 p.m. game before returning home to Ed Meagher Arena on Sunday to face the Ottawa Gee-Gees at 3 p.m.
