Concordia eliminated in a semi-final shootout against Bisons
The Concordia Stingers women’s hockey team have won the bronze medal at the U Sports national championship. They beat the Saskatchewan Huskies 4-0 in the bronze-medal game on March 18 at the Thompson Arena in London, Ont.
🐝🏒WH wins the 2018 U SPORTS bronze medal. Congratulations Stingers! #STINGERSUNITED pic.twitter.com/mgQpcW17pD
— Concordia Stingers (@The_Stingers) March 18, 2018
Forward Claudia Dubois scored two goals in the win, while forward Sophie Gagnon and defenceman Brigitte Laganière added the other pair of goals. Goalie Katherine Purchase was the star of the game, stopping all 37 shots she faced.
The Stingers went to nationals hoping to challenge for the championship after winning the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) title. They opened the tournament with a commanding 8-1 win in the quarter-final against the St-Francis Xavier X-Women. Six different Stingers scored in that game, with Gagnon and forward Marie-Pascale Bernier scoring two goals each, and captain Marie-Joëlle Allard picked up three assists.
They faced the top-ranked University of Manitoba Bisons in the semi-final. Gagnon opened the scoring less than a minute into the second period, but the Bisons responded five minutes later. Purchase continued making key stops for the rest of the game, finishing with 27 saves. After a scoreless four-on-four 10-minute overtime, the two teams needed a shootout to decide the game.
Jordyn Zacharias and Alanna Sharman each scored for the Bisons in the shootout, while Dubois and Kierann Schofield missed for the Stingers. The loss eliminated the Stingers in the semi-final for a second-consecutive year. Last year, the Stingers lost to the University of Alberta Pandas, who went on to win the title. The Bisons also won the title this year.
WHKY 🥉 | We have our bronze medallists! Congratulations to @The_Stingers on a phenominal season and a well-fought game #ChampSZN pic.twitter.com/BT9vAffWnp
— U SPORTS Hockey (@USPORTS_Hockey) March 18, 2018
The Stingers finished the tournament with the most goals scored, with 13. Gagnon led the team in goals with four, and tied Dubois for most points with five. Purchase finished with an incredible 0.63 goals-against average and 0.977 save percentage, allowing only two goals during the tournament.
Main photo by Alex Hutchins.
