4-1 home win gives Concordia points in five-straight games
A three-goal first period by the Concordia Stingers women’s hockey team helped the team defeat the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees 4-1 Sunday afternoon at the Ed Meagher Arena.
The Stingers took control of the game early in the first period. Forwards Rosalie Bégin-Cyr, Marie-Pascale Bernier, and Stéphanie Lalancette scored three goals in less than nine minutes, giving them a 3-0 lead at the first intermission.
“I think one of the big things we’ve had trouble dealing with [recently] is playing a full 60 minutes,” said head coach Julie Chu about their start. “In the last couple of games, we haven’t been the best in the first period, so I think that’s what our main focus was. It’s making sure we have a great start. We did and we pushed the pace. We were really happy with our first period.”
The Stingers played a fast game and were first on the puck most of the time, which Chu said forecheck is something the team has been working on this season.
“I think when we get our forecheck going, a lot of great things happen,” Chu said. “Obviously, forecheck is your first line of defence, through our ability to force the opponent to create turnovers, from there to get opportunities is really big. I think that’s what happened, especially in the first period.”
The Stingers took six of their eight penalty minutes of the game in the second period. Ottawa’s Alexane Papineau took advantage to score the Gee-Gees’s lone goal on the power play.
“They probably had the better on us in the second period,” Chu said. “However, we bounced back in the third and had a really solid game.”
Stingers’s goaltender Alice Philbert made 17 saves in the victory. However, she was mostly occupied in the second period, making nine saves.
“It’s about getting used to it,” Philbert said. “We had fewer shots [against us] last year, so it helped me to get used to it. What I do is thinking I’m the other goalie. I imagine myself making the saves, and it helps me to stay in the game.”
Chu said Philbert’s second period performance was a huge part of the win.
“The great thing about Alice is that she always works hard, and she always puts herself in a position to be ready to play,” Chu said. “In the second period, especially with six minutes of power play that we gave up, we obviously had to rely on our goaltender.”
The Stingers will play the Carleton Ravens on Sunday Nov. 25 at the Carleton Ice House at 3 p.m.
Main photo by Gabe Chevalier.