Huskies feel the Lady Bees’ sting

In a game that echoed last season’s stellar play, the Concordia Stingers women’s hockey team slammed the door on the Saint Mary’s Huskies in pre-season action at the Ed Meagher arena last Friday.
Goaltender Jessica Anderson got the shut out in the 5-0 win, centre Dominique Rancour scored two goals with her well-known flare and both Leanne Martell and Marie-Claude Allard made it on the score sheet with four and three assists respectively.
And then there are the new additions to the team.
Newcomer Clara Gaudet opened up scoring in the first period and got the game-winning goal in this CIS inter-conference romp, with a little help from linemates Rancour and Allard.
Forward Genevieve Dupuis, a first year sociology student, netted one in the second, catching Saint Mary’s goaltender Cheryl Wright off-guard.
“We wanted our first-year players to get some action tonight so we had a first-year player on each line, ” Stinger Head Coach Les Lawton explained after the game. “Clara [Gaudet] drew the straw of playing with M.C. [Allard] and Dominique [Rancour] and did a good job.”
The hole on the line was left by former-captain Lisa-Marie Breton, who ended her playing-career with Concordia at the end of last season, but didn’t stray too far the team. She was appointed to the role of assistant coach in the off-season.
Her old linemates didn’t miss a beat in game action, scoring one of the most impressive goals of the game in the second period. Allard moved in on the net down the middle, did a backhand pass to Rancour, who skated in, made all the right moves, and netted one top right shelf.
The other Stingers goal was scored by right-winger Kendra MacDonald on a straight ahead shot that slipped in slightly over the shoulder of Wright.
Huskies goalie Wright went down fast on each goal, showing weakness on her right side.
Despite the score, the Huskies’ special teams did look good on power play opportunities during the first half of the game, moving the puck into the Stingers zone and applying pressure, but could not capitalize.
The Huskies offence in general did not have much ice presence as Anderson stopped a total of 12 shots, compared to the 33 generated by the Stingers.
“If we don’t change lines, it’s going to be great,” Rancour said of the team’s offence. “We’re going to do the same thing next week.”
The Stingers’ defence looked good on the penalty kill, staving off the opposition during nine penalties.
Frustration mounted towards the end of the game, as Saint Mary’s centre Sarah White ploughed into Anderson three times. Anderson was shaken up, but got back to her feel and clinched the shutout.
“It was our first game, we all need work.” Anderson said. “We haven’t played together a lot yet but we’re going to keep working and it will come together.”