There is a first time for everything. Unfortunately for the Concordia Stingers’ women’s hockey team, that first time came accompanied by an unwelcome reality, ending the 2002-2003 season in one single game.
Despite having rallied from a 5-3 deficit in the third period, the Stingers gave up the QSSF semi-finals game 7-6 in overtime to the underdog Ottawa Gee-Gees’.
This loss represents not only the elimination of the Stingers from the QSSF championship race, but is the first time that the Lady Bees, led by Coach Les Lawton, will not be crowned QSSF Champions in seven years.
“They took advantage of all opportunities, both offensively and defensively,” Lawton explained after the game.
“We seemed to freeze, like we didn’t want to be there.”
The game got off to high-paced start. Despite a strong show by Gee-Gee’s goaltender Heather Huggins, the Stingers got things started when winger Anouk-Grignon-L’Anglais tucked the puck past Huggins’ right side, earning a 1-0 lead four minutes into the first period.
The Gee-Gees were unfazed however, and came back with two goals scored five minutes apart for a 2-1 lead over the Stingers.
Concordia captain Marie-Claude Allard was determined to even things out and dumped the puck into net off a rebound for a power play goal, sending the teams into the locker-room tied at two-all.
Stinger centre Dominique Rancour wasted no time in the second when just one minute in, she went coast-to-coast with the puck, outplaying Huggins for the tiebreaker.
The Gee-Gees retaliated two minutes later when Amy Bell shot the puck from the blue line, which glided in between Stinger goaltender Jessica Anderson’s pads.
It didn’t stop there however, as the Stingers suffered minor breakdowns on both offence and defence.
With 30 seconds remaining in the period, as Anderson skated out of her crease to stop the puck, Gee-Gee Crystal Sauk skated around the goalie to sink the puck into an empty net, handing the Stingers a 5-3 deficit.
The third period could only qualify as the Stingers’ period. “There were lots of talks in the locker-room,” defender Lauren Houghton explained. “Lots of passion, lots of emotion from coaches, so that boosted us in the third period.”
While on a one-man advantage, a scramble occurred in front of the Gee-Gees’ net which set up Allard’s second goal of her hat trick 34 seconds into the frame.
Four minutes later, veteran defender Sue Kaye took charge to tie the score at five-all.
The Stingers started to penetrate the Gee-Gees’ zone for longer stretches of time, but could not capitalize on scoring opportunities. With two Gee-Gees in the penalty box and with seven minutes remaining on the clock, Allard completed her hat trick and broke the tie by whipping the puck past a sprawled-out Huggins.
The Stingers held onto their 6-5 lead, until Marie-Helene Deblois was sent into the penalty box. With 24 seconds remaining in the game, Ottawa forward Melissa Gunsolus surprised Concordia and her own teammates by skating around the defence and tying the game at six-all, sending it into overtime.
The game became intensely fierce as both teams battled to score the winner.
Gunsolus was handed an interference penalty, but the Lady Bees could not capitalize.
As they say, ‘a best defence is often a good offence’, and as the Ottawa defenders batted any Concordia snipers out of the zone, defender Sarah Balch offered her team a one-way ticket to the QSSF Finals by slap-shooting the puck over Anderson’s left shoulder with only three minutes remaining in the OT period.
Gee-Gee Coach Marco Ouellette was ecstatic after the game, especially after having lost 10-0 to the Stingers earlier in the season.
“We’ve only been in the conference for four years, and this is our first play-off win ever,” he explained.
“We fed from that loss, and from the 3-2 loss [to the Stingers] last week, so we had something to prove. To win against a dynasty like Concordia is incredible…we were only looking to keep the score close.”
An emotional Allard could not understand what had just occurred.
“People were ready, yeah, we were looking towards the finals, but that’s normal,” she said.
“I can’t believe it…there was nothing wrong with us, the rebounds were just going their way.”
Houghton herself was bewildered after the game. “This is still all sinking in right now…we didn’t overlook them, but we just didn’t see ourselves losing here,” she said.
“We weren’t cocky in any way, this just wasn’t in the cards…it’s a sour note to end on.”
