Lady Stingers Score Big on Weekend

If there’s anything that’s been problematic for the Concordia Stingers women’s hockey team so far this season, it’s been goal scoring. But this past weekend, you wouldn’t have noticed that, as the Stingers took two out of three games, scoring 10 goals, including five in the first match alone.
“Getting five goals is a really nice feeling,” said forward Devon Rich, who led the team with three goals in two games. “To do it in a home game is even better.”
The Stingers were set to play three games against Atlantic universities – the Saint Mary’s Huskies, St. FX X-Women and concluding the weekend against the Dalhousie Tigers.
Opening against the Huskies, the Stingers pounced on them quick and early, sending their starting goaltender Jillian Robinson to the bench after she conceded two goals on three shots by 2:26 of the opening frame. The goals were scored 19 seconds apart; the first by veteran Donna Ringrose followed by the first of the evening by Rich. She got her second later in the period to regain the two-goal lead.
“In the beginning we fed off each other’s energy,” said Ringrose. “3-1 at the end of the first was a boost.”
After the Huskies made it a goal game again at the end of the second, the Stingers started the third on the power play and made no mistake with blueliner Catherine Desjardins wiring a point shot past replacement goaltender Candace Turnbull. That goal eventually proved to be the game winner.
Rookie Natalie May capped off the night with a backhand empty net goal with 22 ticks left on the clock. It was her first goal as a Stinger, and Concordia won 5-3.
The next afternoon they took on the No. 6 ranked St. FX X-Women, who came off a loss the night before to the McGill Martlets. St. FX took the game 3-2 in a game where penalties made the difference.
Midway through the first, the Stingers got into penalty trouble, which bit the dust for them as two straight penalties led to two straight power play goals for the X-Women.
One thing that didn’t deter the Stingers this past weekend was getting down on themselves, battling back two back-to-back games down two and getting back in the game.
“This weekend showed the team had a lot of confidence,” said coach Les Lawton. “It was a total team effort.”
Late in the period, while on the advantage captain Esther Latoures took a perfect feed from Catherine Rancourt in the slot to put it over the pad and in the net to narrow the St. FX lead to one.
“There’s not one superstar on our team,” said Latoures. “Everybody gave 100 per cent. We believed we could contend with them and we did.”
The second was a fair amount of back and forth action when late in the frame off a pass from Latoures, sophomore defender Meghan George blasted a laser from the point that eluded X-Women goaltender Melissa Murphy, for her first career CIS goal. The crowd went into an uproar and she leaped in the air when the red light went on.
“I was really excited,” said George. “It was a really nice pass, felt really awesome.”
Sunday’s finale against Dalhousie was nothing short of memorable.
After Stinger goaltender Steph Peck let in two goals in the first, she bounced back and closed the door on the Tigers making 33 saves in the game.
“[Peck] bounced back hard. She shut them down,” said Lawton. “It’s a true confidence builder.”
With just under six to go in the second, blueliner Valérie Lepage-Barrette kept the puck in at the blue line, sent it to rookie teammate Laurie Proulx-Dupérée who shot the puck at net, and Devon Rich was on the doorstep knocking the rebound in from the ground and making it a 2-1 game.
In the third, the Stingers were resilient trying to get the equalizer to no avail. They had a couple of chances on the power play, but couldn’t convert.
Down one in the final minute, Concordia coach Lawton called a time out and pulled Peck out of the net for an extra attacker. It was the spark Concordia needed.
After a Ringrose shot, Catherine Rancourt saw the rebound and jumped on it shooting the puck in the empty cage at the side of the net to tie the game up at two with only 24 seconds left.
In overtime, after one straight minute in the Stinger defensive zone they got the puck out quickly and started the rush. Desjardins managed to dance around some of the Tiger defence, but couldn’t get a shot off with her stick in the other direction.
After a couple of tries to free her stick, Desjardins took a shot and took a weird bounce followed by the red light going on.
“I saw [Desjardins] fight for the puck and when she got it off, it hit the post and went in,” said Mallory Lawton. “All I could think about was joining the celebration.”
“We had a tough first half of the season and I feel sorry that things haven’t gone the way we’ve wanted,” said Les Lawton. “We’ve stepped up big and battled back.”
It was a weekend filled with contributions on every level; strong goaltending, veterans and young players stepping up. Everybody was in on the action, and their efforts created a chance for things to fall the right way.
“Luck, finally,” said Maggie Mac Neil.
The final game was also a great performance by Peck, who stonewalled every Tiger shot from 16:08 in the first onwards.
“From a personal point of view, I think that my first period was a little bit slow, but I was able to calm down and bounce back and I feel it’s the most important thing,” said Peck. “I just wanted to go out there and get some shots. I was hungry. I think I did what I had to do and gave my team a chance to win.”

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