Stingers Hope to Keep Momentum

The Concordia Stingers women’s hockey team followed up two consecutive second place finishes at the Theresa Humes Invitational tournament with a fourth place finish in the tournament’s 41st year. Concordia beat the Brock Badgers in their opening game before falling to the No. 8 Toronto Varsity Blues in the semifinal and No. 10 Ottawa Gee-Gees in the bronze medal game.
Aside from the teams in their respected division: McGill, Carleton and Ottawa, the Stingers welcomed four teams from the Ontario conference; Brock, the Queen’s Golden Gaels, the No. 5 Guelph Gryphons and the Varsity Blues, who lost 9-0 in the final against the No. 1 McGill Martlets.
The toughest test for the Stingers was their final game on Sunday afternoon against division rival Ottawa. Coming out of the gate buzzing with a high-octane style of play, the Stingers managed two quick power play goals on two chances by midway through the first period, scored by Devon Rich and Mary Jane O’Shea respectively. Team captain Esther Latoures and veteran defender Catherine Desjardins got assists on both.
“We kept it simple, and it worked out,” said goal scorer Rich. “Our intensity was at its highest today.”
By the end of the first, the Gee Gees rallied to get two quick goals 39 seconds apart by Erika Pouliot and Joelle Charlebois past Stingers’ goaltender Stephanie Peck.
“Although we lost the lead it didn’t affect our game play,” said Rich. “We still went out there with a winning attitude. They didn’t faze us.”
In the second, the teams exchanged five-on-three advantages, but nobody could score, with Concordia failing to capitalize on two separate occasions.
“We stopped doing the little things from before,” said coach Les Lawton. “We suddenly were out of sync, and we stopped trying to do the small things that worked earlier.”
The Gee Gees won the game with a goal by Kayla Hottot, just under five minutes into the third, when a shot hit off of a Stingers defender before the puck slid right under Peck’s pads.
“We still played a solid 60 minutes and I’m very satisfied with our play,” said Lawton.
Concordia opened the tournament Friday evening with a convincing 2-0 shutout victory over the Brock Badgers.
“Everything seemed to go my way,” said Doyon-Lessard, who made 24 saves for the shutout. “We’re pretty positive about the tournament and looking ahead to the second half of the season.”
Rookie Natalie May scored the eventual winner midway through the first, her second goal of her rookie campaign.
“[The coaches] have been at me to go the net and shoot more,” said May. “It always gets the snowball rolling.”
Another rookie who was enjoying every second of the tournament was Mallory Lawton, who was playing her second Humes tournament, but her first with Concordia.
“There were a lot of nerves heading into the first game,” said Mallory. “The game ended up having everything from penalties to breakaways to [Doyon-Lessard] getting the shutout.”
Their semi-final match-up on Saturday was against the Toronto Varsity Blues, to determine who would play in the finals versus No. 1 McGill, who won their first two games 4-0 and 8-2.
It was a game of unfortunate bad bounces for the Stingers as they dropped the game 4-1, with the first three goals in weird ways: off the head, off a leg and a poor line change that led to a three-on-one.
Two players for Toronto who lit up the offence were Lindsay Hill, who managed three goals and an assist, and Karolina Urban with a goal and three assists.
“We made a couple of mental mistakes,” said Les Lawton. “But the effort was definitely there.”
Catherine Desjardins scored a power play marker in the third to reduce the lead to 4-1, but it was too little, too late.
“It’s nostalgic, it was my last [Humes tournament], and I’m upset there were no titles,” said team captain Latoures who lost in the tournament’s championship game three times in her five years.
“However it’s a great opportunity to play three games back-to-back to start the second half.”
“For us to get to Nationals, we’ll have to win every game here on in,” said Latoures, who also had optimism for the second half. “This is a bonus game, it’s always good games versus Ottawa. If we win, it’s a boost of confidence.”
One impressive feat for the Stingers, despite their lack of scoring on the 5-on-3 chances in the Ottawa game was their effort on the power play. Throughout the weekend, four out of their five goals were scored with the advantage.