It’s not very often the Concordia Stingers women’s hockey team can get a goal past the No. 1 nationally-ranked McGill Martlets. Saturday they got one, but that was their only bright spot as they were beat handily by a 16-1 margin at McConnell Arena.
The game was a tough pill to swallow for the Stingers who dropped their seventh of eight games on the year. Sophomore goalkeeper Stephanie Peck started her second game of the season against the undefeated Martlets. For the second straight time she was pulled, this time after conceding seven goals.
The Martlets were led by their top line of sophomore Ann-Sophie Bettez, rookie Marie-Andrée Leclerc-Auger and veteran Vanessa Davidson. The trio amassed a total of eight goals and 11 assists, with Leclerc-Auger getting five herself, three in a span of 9:58 in the second. Bettez set a McGill team record with her five assists. She also collected two goals. Davidson had a goal and four assists.
“It was pure bullshit out there. They showed disrespect,” said coach Les Lawton. “They had their best five players on the ice even though it was 15-1.”
The Stingers started strong and were down 2-0 after the first, giving up power play markers to Cathy Chartrand and Carly Hill, both their third goals of the season.
Two quick goals 33 seconds apart in the second started the downward spiral of the Stingers, one by Leclerc-Auger, and the other by Jasmine Sheehan.
There was a positive on the Stingers front when early on in the frame they killed off a five-on-three Martlet advantage with Catherine Rancourt and Alynn Doiron in the penalty box.
Midway through the stanza, McGill scored two more quick goals, even quicker than the last ones at 23 seconds apart, by Leclerc-Auger and Jordanna Peroff, which made it a lopsided 7-0 game.
Coach Lawton then decided he had seen enough and felt Peck needed time to regain her composure.
Unfortunately McGill’s offence was too strong. Bettez notched her two goals to round out the period, including one deke around Peck’s replacement Audrey Doyon-Lessard.
By the end of two, the Stingers were deflated and out of energy, down 9-0 with the shots a staggering 40-14.
In the first minute of the third period a small force of offence by the Stingers led to Kelly Feehan’s first goal of the season. She put in the rebound off a shot in close taken by Maggie MacNeil. It was the first goal against McGill goaltender and national team member Charline Labonté in five straight league and post-season games, totalling 347 minutes and 57 seconds, dating back to the third period of the Quebec conference final against Carleton on Feb. 28, 2008.
Less than a minute later, Davidson potted a goal just off the inside of the post. A few minutes later Alexandra Lind-Kenny scored her second of the season after a centering pass after an end-to-end rush by blueliner Catherine Ward.
It seemed everyone was getting in on the action for the Martlets, as only four of them were held off the scoresheet.
Another low-light for Concordia was when Ward skated from one side of the rink to the other trying to set up a feed to her teammate. She got it right back and banked it off the back of Doyon-Lessard’s skate. To make matters worse, McGill was shorthanded.
“[McGill] had no respect whatsoever,” said Lawton. “I’m very disappointed at both us and [McGill], but especially them.”
