Despite a solid effort by the Concordia Stingers, the women’s hockey team fell 2-1 to the Université de Montréal Carabins at home on Sunday afternoon.
The Stingers dominated puck possession in the first period, sustaining tremendous pressure and outshooting the Carabins. Still, it was Montréal who got on the board first, finding the back of the net through the five-hole of Stingers goalie Marie-Pier Remillard-Paquette. The goal was the result of Montréal’s first threatening rush, eight minutes into the period.
Concordia also played a strong defensive game early on. In the first period, Alexandra D’Ambrosio saved a potential two on one rush for Montréal, after chasing down a loose puck before the Carabins could gain possession.
Concordia’s Audrey Gariepy tied the game with just over a minute left in the first period, just after Concordia’s power play expired. Both teams were unable to capitalize on the power play throughout the game.
“I wasn’t happy with our forecheck today,” said head coach Les Lawton. “Going into the game, we wanted to establish a forecheck, and we never really established one. We’ve got to get more pucks to the net.”
To open the second period, Stinger Veronique Laramee-Paquette made a nice solo effort to create a scoring chance on the Carabins net-minder. The effort, however, was unrewarded and the game remained tied.
Remillard-Paquette brought some stellar goaltending to Concordia, continuing her strong work throughout the second period, stopping all shots fired at her. Montréal flexed its offensive prowess in the second period, generating more chances than Concordia.
The Carabins also killed off a short five-on-three.
“We did a great job with our penalty kills, and our goaltending was solid,” said Lawton.
The third period saw the Stingers play more defensive hockey, and spend more time in their own zone. Both teams exchanged chances throughout the period, with a stretch of four-on-four play opening the game up. Both teams’ goalies made some formidable saves, though, to keep the game tied.
It was a tightly contested game and was a matter of which team would blink first.
Unfortunately for the Stingers, it was them.
As the game drew to a close, the Stingers gave up a partial break. The end result was a snap shot finding its way past Remillard-Paquette and into the back of the net.
It would prove to be the game winning goal in the 2-1 Stingers defeat.
“The bottom line is, we didn’t create enough chances for ourselves,” said Lawton. “It was a disappointing loss in the sense that we didn’t get a point out of it, but I thought it was a pretty even game.”
