Stinger women slice and dice UQTR

The UQTR Patriotes left town with their tails between their legs after a 7-0 humiliation at the hands of the Concordia Stingers’ women’s hockey team last Thursday at Ed Meagher Arena.
Due to a scheduling conflict, the Patriotes showed up with only half of their 18-player roster.
The Stingers immediately took advantage of the visiting team’s lack of players when Concordia forward Anouk Grignon L’Anglais skated past the defenders and fired in a backhander seconds into the game, giving her team it’s first of several goals.
Two minutes later, Stinger Leanne McPhee easily outplayed the Patriotes’ shaky defence to blast the puck past UQTR goaltender Karine Buissom, allowing Concordia to gain a 2-0 lead early in the period.
Despite being unable to capitalize on three consecutive Stinger penalties, the Patriotes played with an aggressive defence, allowing them to contain strong Concordia forwards throughout the rest of the first frame.
“[UQTR’s] defence is their strength,” Stinger Marie-Claude Allard commented. “We got off to a slow start, but even afterwards, we had a hard time trying to penetrate their zone.”
UQTR’s offence, obviously fatigued by numerous line switches, struggled to remain inside Concordia’s zone, but a strong fore-checking system allowed the home team to shoo away any intruders.
After looking sluggish in the first period, the Stingers’ offence came out with a bang and kept the puck on a string for most of the second frame.
The Patriotes defence did everything in their power to control the Stingers, but could not stop imposing forward Dominique Rancour as she swept past them to bang in a rebound off Buissom’s pads.
The visiting team’s defence began to falter, allowing the Stingers to remain in their zone for long periods of time.
With six minutes remaining in the frame, Concordia defender Suzanne Kaye, receiving a pass from Rancour, found the back of the Patriote net with a beautiful slap shot, giving the Stingers a 4-0 after two periods.
The intermission appeared to have energized the Stingers, who took advantage of the Patriotes fatigue to score three more goals in the final period.
Kaye, skating away from her defensive zone and assisted by teammates Emilie Larocque and Roxanne Dupuis, skated around a wobbly UQTR defender to sink the puck past the goal line three minutes into the period.
“We had a hard time getting our legs going at the start of the game,” Kaye said. “We saw they were getting tired at the end of the second, so we skated around them in order to score some goals.”
UQTR’s frustration was palpable when they were called for an interference penalty.
Allard capitalized on the power play when she slipped the puck between the goalkeeper’s pads.
The Patriotes, desperate to make up for their six-goal slump, tightened up defensively during the last half of the frame.
Concordia goaltender Lori Posluns, who saw very little action throughout the game, was suddenly faced with a rougher offence.
She kept her cool, but the Patriotes did not, as they attempted to pick fights around the Concordia net.
The Stingers refused to take the bait, but the visiting team was given three penalties in as many minutes.
As a final insult, with a Patriote in the penalty box, Stinger forward Lisa-Marie Breton tipped in a pass by Allard past the goalie’s glove to put the nail in UQTR’s casket and giving the Stingers their first shutout since Oct. 21.
“We’re on a good roll right now,” Head Coach Les Lawton commented. “We haven’t a lost a game since Nov. 2, and we have two big games coming up against Toronto and McGill.
“I think we have more depth than most teams, so if we can keep playing fast and physical as we did today, we should be able to win both games.”