Goaltender Alice Philbert shines for the Stingers this weekend as the women’s hockey team improves to 7-2
Though forward Emmy Fecteau scored the overtime winner for the Concordia Stingers, goaltending was the highlight story on both sides in the Stingers’ win over the University of Montreal Carabins on Friday, Nov. 18 at the Ed Meagher Arena.
“Montreal has a great goaltender. We have a great goaltender. There isn’t a team in this league that doesn’t have a good goaltender,” affirmed Stingers’ head coach Julie Chu after the win. “We have to get traffic to the net. That’s how we’re going to be able to beat them.”
The Stingers started the game slowly, getting outshot 13-7 in the opening frame, largely due to taking three penalties. They rebounded after that however, and outshot the Carabins 27-16 the rest of the way.
Stingers’ forward Émilie Lavoie and Carabins’ forward Raphaëlle Pouliot traded power-play goals in the first period, and the game was tied 1-1 after 20 minutes. Stingers’ goaltender Alice Philbert kept the game tied for her team in the first period, making 12 saves.
Both teams’ goaltenders stole the show after that, as Philbert and Carabins goaltender Aube Racine shut the door for the following 40 minutes, making 14 and 26 saves respectively.
But Philbert was not intimidated by her counterpart’s performance.
“In our league, there are some really good goalies. It’s like this in every game,” she explained. “For me, it’s just a motivation to push even harder, and be ready for the next shot every time.”
Fecteau finally broke the deadlock with 15 seconds remaining in the first overtime period. She rushed down the right wing and snapped a shot over Racine’s right shoulder, earning the Stingers’ a 2-1 victory.
“There were several moments where it was going well for our team,” Fecteau said. “We were putting on good pressure. I think the goal was coming.”
The Stingers made a point of getting in the Carabins’ shooting lanes and blocking shots in this game. Chu was impressed with her team’s courage in that respect.
“I emphasize it a lot because I’m a big believer in it,” Chu explained. “We’ve worked on it in practice, they’ve embodied it and they want to do it, which are huge momentum moments for us.”
Philbert also thought her team’s effort was a big factor in the win.
“They worked really hard,” she said. “The first period was not the best, but we bounced back in the second and third.”
Chu thinks that the Stingers need to figure out how to play a physical game without taking too many penalties.
“The last two, three games we took a lot of penalties and we’ve got to find that balance,” she noted. “We want to play aggressive, we want to play physical, but we don’t want to stay in the box all day.”
The Stingers improved to a 6-2 record with this win over the Carabins. They defeated the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees 2-0 on Sunday, Nov. 20 to improve to 7-2. The Stingers now sit in first-place in the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec standings.
