Concordia’s women’s hockey team faced-off against their nemesis, their dark shadow, their equal if not better last Sunday afternoon, and lost.
This time it was an oh-so-close 1-0 defeat to conference leaders McGill Martlets, in a game where both teams showcased their best performances.
“It could’ve gone either way,” said Stingers’ Coach Les Lawton. “Both teams played well. They just got a break and we didn’t.”
The “break” McGill had was a lucky bounce halfway through the first period, when a pass from a scramble in one of the corners hopped over a Stinger defender’s stick.
All alone, Martlet captain Katherine Safka picked up the loose puck in front of the net and snapped it in for the lone goal of the game.
Beyond that, the game was like playing the team on the other side of the mirror. McGill and Concordia each have their specialties: McGill being bigger and defence-oriented, Concordia smaller, faster and more offensively aggressive.
As expected, the story of the game was the McGill all-star goalie Kim St-Pierre.
St-Pierre turned away 23 shots, recording her 10th shutout of the seasons and tying a CIS record set last year by Toronto’s Alison Houston. “The game was more physical than usual, but for us it was all about beating St-Pierre,” Stinger forward Dominique Rancour said.
St-Pierre really put on a show in the second period when the angry Stingers came out buzzing, trying everything and anything to get a puck past her. Odd-man rushes, slap shots from the blue-line, crashing the net or clogging the front of it, deflections and one-timers but St-Pierre’s incredible physical antics saved the day.
Of course, St-Pierre had help from her defence, plus a little from the pipes as a few shots dinged off the posts.
McGill’s defensive-play was a constant menace to Concordia forwards. McGill almost seemed to have psychic powers, seemingly reading Concordia’s plays, anticipating and intercepting passes, that the Stingers got desperate with their clearing passes in the third period.
“It was just frustrating, that’s the only way to describe it,” Rancour explained. “You want to score, you want to shoot, you want to crash the net, but we couldn’t.”
The Stingers had this game circled on their calendars, knowing all their practices were aimed at beating McGill. But for the first time in conference history, McGill swept all four games against Concordia in a season.
The win allowed McGill to clinch first place and home-ice advantage during the playoffs.
Another reason that this game was important is that it could have been Lawton’s 500th career win.
He didn’t seem too discouraged after the game however, happy with the way his team played. “That win’s not so important. That’ll happen, next week or sometime before the end of the season,” Lawton commented.
He’ll have two opportunities this weekend, when the women’s team visits UQTR on Friday and Ottawa Sunday.
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