Katherine Purchase returns to action and records a shutout
The Concordia Stingers women’s hockey team blanked the Carleton University Ravens 6-0 Sunday afternoon at the Ed Meagher Arena. Forward Stéphanie Lalancette scored two goals and goaltender Katherine Purchase registered the shutout in her first start of the season to help the Stingers beat the Ravens.
Following Saturday’s lost to the McGill Martlets, Stingers head coach Julie Chu said her team missed killer instinct. She was pleased with how her team responded against the Ravens.
“We liked what we did today,” Chu said. “We had a pretty hard message on them after the game [Saturday]. Obviously they want to win, so when they lose 5-1 they’re really not feeling great about it. Then, we made sure they felt a little bit tougher about it. The best thing about this team is that they respond, and we have great leadership and great veterans that stepped up and realized we just needed a little reset.”
The Stingers took many of their 44 shots from the blue line and used their defencemen to create scoring opportunities. Chu said the team focused on playing great in the offensive zone.
“I think when we start some attacks down low it opens up our opportunities up top,” Chu said. “Our forwards did a really good job driving the net, creating spaces and time down low. It naturally opened up up top. What we were looking for our defencemen was to make sure we had some good puck movement and shots through as much as we could. I thought overall we did a really good job with that.”
The Stingers scored two power play goals in the game. According to Chu, the team’s special units worked well because of their quick puck management.
“It’s when we hold on to the puck a little bit longer [that it doesn’t work],” Chu said. “Maybe sometimes on the power play our intensity goes down. We have to move the puck quickly, tape to tape, and make sure we have a great net front presence.”
Forward Audrey Belzile, who recorded one goal and two assists in the victory, said the Stingers showed a totally different power play look than the one against the Martlets.
“I think we were moving the puck faster than yesterday,” Belzile said. “Yesterday we were stressed to make a mistake, but today we were simply moving the puck and taking shots. It’s especially what we didn’t do yesterday [that we did today], which is having a screen in front of the net to block the goaltender’s view. That’s what helped because she didn’t see pucks arrive.”
Purchase saved all 14 shots she received in her first start of the season with the Stingers. Chu said Purchase responded well to a game she knew would be challenging.
“Katherine [Purchase] did a great job,” Chu said. “In her first game, she had a tough start. Regardless of the score, she had to make some really good saves early on when it was 1-0 or 2-0. She had a two-on-one opportunity where she had to come up with a big save. If she doesn’t make that save, maybe it [would have changed] the flow of the game a little bit.”
Purchase said she prepared for this game knowing the team wanted to avenge their disappointing loss from Saturday. “It was a must win game for us,” Purchase said. “You could see just from the warm up that the team was ready and that gave me confidence.”
The Stingers play their next game on Jan. 18 against the Université de Montréal Carabins. The puck drop is at 7 p.m. at the CEPSUM Arena.
Main photo by Mackenzie Lad.
