Stingers open exhibition season with pair of wins

Concordia Stingers goaltender Stephanie Peck spent the entire season on the sidelines last year. As the third goaltender behind veterans Meggy Hatin-Léveillée and Audrey Doyon-Lessard on Concordia’s women’s hockey team, Peck got a chance to dress, but never got to step on the ice. That all changed on Sunday when she not only played, but won her first game as a Stinger 2-1 – in a shootout, no less – against the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) Ridgebacks.
“[Not playing last year] was probably the toughest thing I had to do as a goalie,” she said. “So you could imagine how excited, nervous and pumped I was. I felt confident and the team was really there to back me up and encourage me and that made all the difference.”
The Stingers gave up the opening goal, but came back on a goal from Kelly Feehan to force the shootout.
Catherine Rancourt was Concordia’s first shooter and decked out the goaltender, but was stopped by the post. Esther Latoures scored on the Stingers’ second shot when she fired a shot five-hole on the Ridgeback goaltender. Devon Rich was Concordia’s third shooter and was stopped on a backhand.
Meanwhile, Peck stopped all three UOIT shooters.
“[Peck] played awesome,” said veteran forward Emilie Luck, who was ejected early in the second period after a hitting from behind penalty that was “highly questionable” according to Luck’s teammate Maggie Mac Neil.
“The penalty killers did a great job,” said Peck. “They didn’t allow many chances [on Luck’s major penalty] and killed off a key penalty in overtime when it was 4-on-4.
In the Stingers’ first game of the Brock Invitation tournament, they played the Queen’s Golden Gaels who finished fourth in the 10-team Ontario conference last season.
The Stingers won that game 2-1 with Mallory Lawton, the daughter of head coach Les, scored the game-winning goal.
“We are still working out the kinks as a team, but that will come with more practice and games,” said defenceman Alynn Doiron.
Luck agreed. “We had some pretty decent teamwork,” she said. “We hadn’t gone over many main positioning or plays, but we held up strong, fought hard and it worked out well.”
“It was a nice surprise,” said head coach Les Lawton. “We’re still really early so we were a bit sloppy out there, but it’s definitely satisfying to come home after winning a couple of close games,” he said.
The exhibition tournaments before the season starts allow teams to try and find their team identities, as well as trying to find out who the leaders are. Lawton says they have one more important positive.
“It’s good to do it away from home, and have the team together,” Lawton said. “These weekends are very important to us.”
The Stingers will continue their exhibition season this weekend when they go to the University of Toronto to partake in the Marion Hilliard tournament. The Stingers will play three games against Durham, the University of Toronto and Markham-Soutffville.