Les Lawton has seen plenty of things in his 24 years as head coach of the Concordia Stingers women’s hockey team, but on Friday night he saw something that he had never seen before.
The Concordia Stingers lost to the Carleton Ravens 4-3 in a shootout, the first in QSSF, and Concordia, history.
The Quebec Student Sport Federation added a five-minute overtime period and a five-round shootout this season to prevent ties. Previous to this move games ended if they were tied after three periods.
“I don’t like the shootout,” Lawton said. “But it’s better than the game ending in a tie.”
The Stingers rebounded from their poor performance in Ottawa against Carleton last Sunday with a better performance but their maiden win in 2006 still eludes them.
The Ravens scored two goals in the shootout, Laura Jackson put a puck over the glove of Audrey Doyon-Lessard, and Alexandra Palm put one by the Stinger netminder after faking a backhand, and going to her forehand.
Carleton keeper Valerie Charbonneau shut out the Stingers in the shootout. Charbonneau’s best save in the one-on-one showdown was on Isabelle Caron who forced the reigning QSSF all-star to dive to her left to keep the puck out of the net.
Donna Ringrose opened the scoring for the Stingers 1:36 into the game. It was the rookie’s second goal in two games. Carleton tied the game up before the first intermission when Laura Jackson picked up a loose puck in the Stingers zone and fired a puck over the glove of Doyon-Lessard again. Doyon-Lessard, a rookie out of Dawson College was playing her second game of the season, and first at home. She made 40 saves in the loss.
The Stingers could have been trailing going into the second period, but the rookie goaltender played very well in the late stages of the first to keep the game tied at one.
Early in the second however, Jennifer Slewidge picked up the puck and charged the Stingers net with two defenders on her tail. Slewidge tried to center the puck when she was parallel to the goal-line, but the puck hit off a Stinger defenceman and went into the net.
Concordia pushed to get the equalizer, but Charbonneau was up to the task when Emilie Luck took a feed from Devon Rich in the slot with seven minutes remaining in the period.
They finally would pull even before the end of the third, though. Angela Di Stasi, who had been Concordia’s best player on the night won the offensive zone face-off. Elana August then tipped the puck back to rookie defenceman Catherine Desjardins, who stepped up into the slot and put a backhand past Charbonneau for her first ever CIS goal.
The Stingers pushed hard in the opening stages of the third when Carleton’s Maxime Vaillant was in the penalty box for body checking. The trio of Di Stasi, Ringrose and Tawnya Danis had several chances on the powerplay but Charbonneau shut the door.
While shorthanded, the Stingers had another opportunity. Tawnya Danis stole the puck at the defensive blue line, and had a breakaway. She went to her backhand and rang the shot off the post. With the rebound loose, and Charbonneau scrambling to cover the puck up, Danis and Di Stasi started fishing for the puck, but it was just out of reach.
Less than a minute later, on that same powerplay, a lot of puck movement and rebounds finally paid off in a goal for Ravens forward Caitlin Cadeau.
Six minutes later, the Stingers once again pulled even. Ringrose passed the puck to Di Stasi who crashed the net with the puck and fed Danis with a backhand pass which she put over a sprawling Charbonneau with a backhand of her own.
The goalies dominated the rest of the game. Both Doyon-Lessard and Charbonneau stoned opponent forwards in all situations.
The Stingers did have a bit of a scare midway through the period when a point shot that tipped off Doyon-Lessard went off of the post and dropped next to the post where it stayed until it was cleared by a Stinger defender. She came up big again with a minute and a half left in the overtime period when she stopped Carleton captain Michelle Higgins who had a breakaway.
“Audrey played a very good game,” Lawton said. “She made big saves and kept us in the game when we were down, and kept the game tied.”
“I’m just doing my job and trying my best,” Doyon-Lessard said. “The shootout was stressful,” she added while saying she does like shootouts.
Di Stasi, an assistant captain for the Stingers played her best game of the season. She was strong in the offensive zone, getting two assists, as well as defensively and on the penalty kill.
“She showed great leadership and confidence,” Lawton said of the fourth-year forward.
“We played much better today [than last Sunday at Carleton],” Di Stasi said. “We had so many chances and that is encouraging. It means that the offence is going to come and it’s really good to see all of the rookies stepping up,” she said.
The rookies did play a big role in the team getting their first point of the 2006 season. Doyon-Lessard was strong in nets, Ringrose had a goal and an assist and Desjardins picked up her first goal.
Lawton, who was critical of his team after their loss against Carleton last Sunday, was much happier with the team’s passion and emotion on Friday night.
“I’m disappointed in the result, but this is going to take some time,” he said. “But we saw some good things that we will build on,” he continued.
The Stingers now enjoy a week off. Their next games are Nov. 25 and 26, in Ottawa on Saturday and back home against McGill on Sunday.
National Rankings
1 McGill (1)
2 Alberta (2)
3 Laurier (3)
4 Queen’s (5)
T5 St FX (4)
T5 Saint Mary’s (6)
7 Toronto (7)
8 Manitoba (8)
9 Regina (10)
10 Ottawa (9)
