Concordia 4, McGill 1: Stingers dispatch Martlets in seventh annual Pink in the Rink game

Photo by Cecilia Piga

On the seventh annual Pink in the Rink match, the Concordia Stingers women’s hockey team came out on top with a 4-1 win over the McGill Martlets. The Pink in the Rink game serves as a fundraiser for the CURE Foundation for breast cancer.

“It’s incredible what our players do,” said head coach Julie Chu after the win. “The amount of effort that they put into it. They work the men’s game, make sure to decorate the rink, bake stuff, try to promote it, and raise as much money as possible. On top of preparing as student-athletes for their classes and their games. It’s a really important game and it’s awesome to see what a great job they do with it.”

While the season series between Concordia and McGill has been extremely close, this game felt different. The Stingers, all wearing pink laces, came out flying, disrupting passing lanes, blocking shots, and making life just generally unpleasant for McGill goalie Tricia Deguire. Sandrine Lavictoire scored her first goal of the season to open up the game in the first period with a shot from the point that made its way through traffic and into the back of the net. Captain Claudia Dubois would add another one for the Stingers after she finished a nice passing play from linelinemate Audrey Belzile. Dubois would score another goal in the second period off of a great effort play by Belzile.

While Belzile’s been getting some points out of her play (7pts in her last 8 games), her effort is not rewarded on the scoresheet nearly enough. This game, it was. The Stingers have a much harder time beating the Martlets if she isn’t making the type of effort plays that she did. Her two assists both game from using her awareness and skill to set up Dubois. The first was a behind-the-back-no-looker from the corner, right to the stick of Dubois for the tap-in. The second apple was pure hustle. With Stephanie Lalancette just looking to ice the puck, Belzile outraced the McGill defenders, got the icing waved off, collected the puck, turned, and fired a pass right to Dubois for the easy tap-in as she crashed into the boards.

It was plays like those that had Chu praising her team’s effort.

“Last weekend, there were two areas that we didn’t do well in,” said Chu. “The first was our backcheck. That was something we worked on a lot, we watched the video on it. The other was releasing shots and releasing pucks quicker. Those were our keys to success, and we were able to capitalize on them.”

McGill would add a goal of their own thanks to Marika Labrecque’s slot wrister that beat Stingers goalie Alice Philbert. She would finish the game with 26 saves on 27 shots. The second-year goalie now has 11 wins on the season. Amélie Lemay would add a power play marker to make it four on the night for the Stingers.

This was the type of win that shows the rest of U Sports that the Stingers aren’t just the top-ranked team in the country because they play in a tough division. McGill is a great team (although this game they were missing key player Jade Downie-Landry), and for the Stingers to win the way they did sends a message.

After claiming the RSEQ title last weekend against Carleton, the Stingers have done all they can to show that they’ve separated themselves from McGill and Montreal. With only two games left in the season, the only thing left for this team is to finish strong and see who the #4-seed in the RSEQ will be for the playoffs.

NOTES:

  • No notes this time, but enjoy this photo of Julie Chu and her daughter Liv.
    Photo by Matthew Coyte

 

Feature photo by Cecilia Piga

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