Led by their four power play goals, Concordia’s offence could not be stopped
The Concordia Stingers women’s hockey team was looking for their first win of 2015 and found it when they rolled over the Carleton Ravens on Friday night, winning 6-1.
The first period began and the Stingers started very strong, throwing everything they had at Ravens goaltender Katelyn Steele. Later in the period, the Ravens got called for a penalty when Charlene Duffett was sent to the box for interference. Concordia quickly capitalized on the advantage when Keriann Schofield gave a pass to the point and Danielle Scarlett fired a quick shot that fooled Steele for the 1-0 lead.
The Stingers continued to dominate and it looked like the Ravens were simply no match. Once again, Carleton got penalized when Kaylie Welk got called for cross checking. Concordia took advantage again as Alexandria D’Onofrio took a shot that was tipped in by Valerie Wade for the 2-0. Quickly, the Stingers were in the driver’s seat and there was no turning back.
The Ravens played very undisciplined hockey as their frustration grew. Near the end of the first period Rebecca Dow got a penalty for yelling at the referee for an offside call.
As the second period started, Concordia went back to work on the power play and put the game out of reach indefinitely. One minute into the man advantage, Marie-Joelle Allard took a shot from the point at the net where Devon Thompson tipped it home for the 3-0 lead.
The Ravens started to attack the net with more success after that, but Concordia’s goalie Katherine Purchase was stopping every shot she faced and refused to let Carleton back in the game. The Ravens finally got on the scoreboard when a Sadie Wegner shot found the back of the net and cut the lead to 3-1.
Having not learned from the first period, Carleton’s undisciplined play cost them again when they were called for a tripping penalty on Olivia Keefe. Like clockwork, the Stingers power play punished the Ravens for the fourth time when Allard took a shot at the net that once again got tipped by Devon Thompson for her second of the game and a 4-1 lead. After Carleton made a switch in net, pulling Steele for Hailey Perreault, the second period ended and the Stingers were one period away from their first win of 2015.
The third period started in similar fashion as Concordia continued to dominate. Five minutes into the period Stingers forward Veronique Boudreau wired the puck past Perreault for her first goal as a Concordia Stinger and gave her team the 5-1 lead. Concordia was not letting up and it looked like the Ravens couldn’t find a solution to solve their opponent’s attack. The Stingers added one more goal to make it 6-1 when forward Valerie Wade made a nifty pass to Ann-Julie Deschenes who tucked the puck past Perreault.
The game would end on that score and Concordia sealed a dominating win. After the game, Concordia’s head coach Les Lawton was proud of his team.
“It was a really solid team effort. Special teams were very good and it was nice that we spread [around] the scoring,” Lawton said.
Thompson had three points for the Stingers and was also very happy with the result.
“We had a couple good weeks of practice and we came off two games where we had slow starts; we wanted to change that. We looked a lot at power plays and it showed today. As long as we work hard as a team, we can be successful.”
