The Concordia Stingers’ women’s hockey team had a golden opportunity to steal a win in their game against the McGill Martlets last Friday at Ed Meagher Arena. With Martlet goaltender Kim St. Pierre away at the Team Canada hockey camp and with the Maroon and Gold playing on home ice, the Stingers seemed pre-destined to earn a win.
However, McGill sabotaged those plans by handing Concordia a harsh 5-1 loss in an intensely physical game.
With their number-one goaltender away for a few days, the Martlet defenders had to rely on better zone coverage, which meant more pushing and shoving added to the Red and White’s already aggressive defensive style.
The Stingers’ forwards looked strong though, pushing into the visiting team’s zone and out shooting them 8-5 in the first period. Despite this, the Martlets opened up the scoring halfway through the period when winger Suzanne Fujiki took a slap shot over Stinger goalie Jessica Anderson’s left shoulder.
Following the goal, the game became increasingly physical and the Stingers couldn’t capitalize on their scoring chances. “We are muscular and we have the big people too,” a humbled Marie-Claude Allard explained. “They [McGill] use it [strength] very well and it plays against us every time.”
Allard came close to evening out the score when she slipped the puck into the crease, but it was batted away by goaltender Delphine Roy.
The McGill defence roughened their hits, earning themselves a few penalties in the first but the Maroon and Gold couldn’t take advantage and ended the period trailing 1-0.
The second period got off to an exciting start as Concordia’s Dominique Rancour grabbed possession of the puck on a breakaway and shot it at Roy, who executed a beautiful glove save.
The Martlets pulled out the big guns on a power play when Sarah Lomas slipped the puck past Anderson early in the period. Four minutes later, left wing Justine Keyserlingk took a rebound and dumped the puck past the goal line for a 3-0 lead.
Things heated up when, following a scramble in front of the Stingers’ net, Kelly Sudia sent McGill’s Audrey Hadd flying into the net, earning herself a an interference penalty.
Hadd did not take the abuse lightly, and obtained retribution by scoring her team’s fourth goal off a rebound.
With defender Sue Kaye gone to the Team Canada training camp, the Stingers’ defence appeared to be on vacation as well, but managed to tighten up late in the second period.
Stinger captain Allard took advantage of a loose puck in front of the Martlets’ net and tipped it over Roy, scoring her team’s only goal 43 seconds into the third period. Concordia’s penalty killing units came out strong during the final period, especially during a five-on-three situation.
Unfortunately, Acheson successfully outplayed the defence and stole the puck away from Anderson, tucking it deep into the net for the final goal of the game.
The Stingers’ best efforts to add to the scoreboard were unsuccessful, ending this rivalry game 5-1 in favor of the Martlets.
“It’s just one of these days, we just weren’t in sync and it’s a pretty difficult thing to watch as a coach,” Coach Les Lawton explained. “You spend a lot of time on a lot of small parts of the game, and we didn’t do any of the small things very well today. It’s very humbling.”
Defender Roxanne Dupuis appeared puzzled by the game that had just ended. “Obviously, we weren’t tight enough,” Dupuis explained. “We were missing a degree of energy, I don’t know, we should have played harder. They came out really physically, and we couldn’t manage with it I guess.”
