Keriann Schofield was the hero for Concordia with the winning goal
A high-scoring game ended with an overtime goal by Concordia Stingers forward Keriann Schofield, propelling her team to a 5-4 win against the Université de Montréal Carabins on Nov. 10 at the Ed Meagher Arena.
“That’s a good example of an emotional game,” said Stingers head coach Julie Chu. “You never want to go down two goals and claw your way back, but that’s hockey. Everyone went out there and got the job done.”
The Stingers dominated the play in the opening 10 minutes, however, it was the Carabins that found the net first. Montréal took the lead after a shot by forward Estelle Duvin went right past the glove of Stingers goalie Katherine Purchase.
A few minutes later, the Carabins extended their lead when forward Laurie Mercier drove to the net and sent another shot past Purchase’s glove. The Carabins escaped the first period with a 2-0 lead.
After allowing two goals on seven shots, Purchase was pulled in favour of rookie goalie Alice Philbert, who started the second period.
“There were a lot of reasons for changing Purchase that go beyond the two goals,” Chu said. “She’s been great for us this season and will continue to be great for us. It was great to see Alice play her first game, and she stepped up for us.”
In the second period, the Stingers found their offensive touch and scored three goals. The first goal came from a beautiful passing play from forward Sophie Gagnon to forward Claudia Dubois, who backhanded the puck past the glove of Carabins goaltender Maude Trevisan.
Just minutes later, on a Stingers power play, forward Lidia Fillion tipped home a shot from Dubois to tie the game at 2-2. Stingers forward Marie-Pascale Bernier then gave the team a 3-2 lead with just over three minutes to go in the second period.
In the third period, the Stingers extended their lead to 4-2 after a goal from forward Audrey Belzile, but the team quickly lost energy, and the Carabins stormed right back to tie the game. Montréal forwards Catherine Dubois and Annie Germain scored the two goals that tied up the game and sent it to overtime.
“We really try to focus on one shift at a time, and it’s really hard to do,” said Chu about her team losing energy near the end of the game. “We want to make sure we can reset after a good shift and reset after a bad one. That allowed us to continue to push in overtime.”
Despite an uneventful first four minutes of overtime, the Stingers found a way to win with Schofield scoring a nifty goal, sliding the puck past the left toe of Trevisan.
“I was on the offensive side of the puck just hoping to get a pass, and when I did, I just walked around the goalie and saw a small space and put it in,” Schofield said.
With the win, the Stingers improve to 4-0-1 and now stand alone in first place in their division. They will play the McGill Martlets on Nov. 12 at the McConnell Arena.
Main photo by Alex Hutchins.
