Tag: claudia dubois

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Stingers women’s hockey building off of last season

The 2018-19 Réseau du Sport Etudiant du Québec (RSEQ) season didn’t finish the way the Concordia Stingers women’s hockey team had hoped. After winning the RSEQ championship in 2018, the Stingers were eliminated in the semifinals by McGill last playoffs in what was a learning season for them.

This year’s Stingers roster will present a more mature group than last season, when 11 players were rookies. Stingers head coach Julie Chu said the team experienced a lot of growth over the past months, which is a big factor in approaching the new season.

“It’s the commitment it takes to play at this level,” Chu said. “It’s the patience to know that with so many first-year players, it takes time to get to the level we need to be in regards to fitness, conditioning, overall execution on a consistent basis, and just understanding the system at the next level.”

The ending of the Stingers’s last season pushed the players to work even harder this summer. Chu said it’s incredible to see the effort and commitment players made over the summer, and how it helped them improve their game.

“Over the summer, all of our returning players wanted to make a commitment at getting better, and making sure that by the start of this season, they were in a much better position [than last year],” Chu said. “Because of that, we’re in a much different spot and we’re able to compete at a higher level [since the beginning of our exhibition games].”

Stingers forward Claudia Dubois will be one of the team’s veterans in 2019-20, as this season will be her fifth. Having been part of both 2018 RESQ’s championship team and last year’s team that lost in the semi-finals, Dubois said she’s gained enough experience to be a leader this season.

“It’s for sure a big role in the team,” Dubois said. “I just want to lead by example the best I can with the rookies, and guide them in the best direction as possible for the upcoming years at university.”

Dubois said players took a step back at the conclusion of last season. Even if the Stingers were hoping for a better result, Dubois thought this was a needed lesson, as it’s been a couple of good years for the Concordia women’s hockey program.

“I think to have experienced that as a team was a reset for this season,” Dubois said. “We know we’ll have to work hard for everything. It was hard at the beginning of the off-season, but as we were moving forward this summer, it became a motivation for all of us in discussions and practices. We’re looking forward to play McGill, but any team in the league will be sort of a revenge and opportunity to prove it was a mistake [last season’s results].”

Chu said the current Stingers roster is not only a great one, but also the ideal kind of group for players and coaches. She explained that compared to last year with all the rookies, this year’s team presents a better mix of players from all years.

“We can’t have a team of only rookies because that’s a lot of energy,” Chu said. “Yet, we also can’t have a team of only returners. Now that we’re introducing five new players to our program, it’s just adding to the veterans that we have here, which makes it better. What we have here is a really good balance of different qualities and skills that players bring to our team, lineup, and practices every day.”

With most players having already played their first year at university level, Chu said everyone seems more settled in than at the same point of the year last off-season.

“We don’t have as many players going through their first moments of figuring out everything like last year, where half of our team was new,” Chu said. “A lot more energy was spent on things as simple as understanding how to register for classes, or even moving to Montreal. It’s really fun to see our team coming together, and be in a good position in order to continue moving forward and getting better in this early part of the season.”

Stingers forward Rosalie Bégin-Cyr, RSEQ’s highest-scoring rookie and one of the Stingers’ 11 first-year players last year, said most of the team will now have made a little step forward with that first season completed.

“We now know how the league works, as well as the team’s system and everything that’s around it. We certainly have a really talented group right now with quality players in all positions.”

Dubois said players know they have what it takes to win. However, she explained the team is focusing on one step at a time, and doesn’t want to look too far ahead.

“We’re focusing on the first half of the season [that goes] until Christmas,” Dubois said. “We started playing better in the second half of the season last year. It wasn’t too late, but it didn’t help us at the end with the standings and the playoffs. We want to win and we know we have the team to do it, so we’ll proceed one step at a time and it all starts now.”

 

Feature photo by Laurence BD

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Stingers hold on to win dramatic game three

The Stingers will face the Montréal Carabins in the RSEQ final, the team they beat in the playoffs last year. Photo by Alex Hutchins.

Women’s hockey team books spot in finals and nationals for second-straight year

After losing game two on the road on Feb. 24 and with their season on the line, the Concordia Stingers women’s hockey team was forced to play a third game at home on Feb. 25 in their playoff series against the Ottawa Gee-Gees. The Stingers came out on top with a 2-1 win at the Ed Meagher Arena, clinching a spot in the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) final, and in the national championship in London, Ont., in March.

The first period was a tense affair with teams trading power plays and solid chances with no result. The deadlock was broken halfway through the second period when Stingers captain and defenceman Marie-Joëlle Allard put home a rebound following a hectic scramble in front of the Gee-Gees net. When Allard scored, four Gee-Gees, the goalie and even the referee were all lying on the ice.

“All the games we’ve played against this team have been really physical, so we knew that there were going to be penalties throughout this series,” Allard said. “We really worked on our special teams play building up to this series, and that definitely paid off.”

Forward Sophie Gagnon (#11) scored one goal in the series. Photo by Alex Hutchins.

As the second period was winding down and the Stingers upped the offensive pressure, a stray rebound found its way onto forward Lidia Fillion’s stick, and she made no mistake, giving the Stingers a 2-0 lead. The home crowd was buzzing with the thought of potentially going to the finals for a second-straight year.

One of hockey’s favourite clichés is that a two-goal lead is the worst lead to have, and that seemed to be accurate as the Gee-Gees came out flying in the third period. They scored just two minutes into the third period.

The Ottawa side kept up the pressure, launching attack after attack, but were ultimately frustrated by Stingers goalie Alice Philbert. The rookie made several game-saving stops, including a desperate, sprawling save with three seconds left on the clock to secure the win.

Another standout player was Stingers forward Claudia Dubois, who has been one the team’s best players this season. After leading the team in the regular season with 20 points, she had two assists in this series.

“We’re very happy with the way we bounced back after a tough loss yesterday,” Dubois said. “We really came together as a team, and we have the result to show for it. Playing against [Université de] Montréal in the final is going to be a challenge, but we’re all confident that we can get the job done.”

The pressure and intensity from this game was a far cry from the display on Saturday, as head coach Julie Chu pointed out following the win.

“The series overall was a great, and we’re thrilled to move on. A massive part of that was due to the fact that we just played with more desperation,” Chu said. “After the second game, we had to come back home and play as if it were our last game on Earth or else we would lose, because [Ottawa] definitely played with that mindset.”

The Stingers will now play against the Université de Montréal Carabins in the finals, a team they have played five times this season, with every game going into overtime or a shootout. The Stingers had a 3-0-2 record against them this season. The series will begin on March 1.

Main photo by Alex Hutchins.

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Two Stingers proudly represented Concordia at Hockey Canada development camp

Claudia Dubois lines up for a face-off in regular-season action during the 2016-17 season. Archive photo by Alex Hutchins

Claudia Dubois and Caroll-Ann Gagné aim to reach new heights with women’s hockey team

Two Stingers on the women’s hockey team recently got to hone their talents with Canada’s national women’s development team. Defenceman Caroll-Ann Gagné and forward Claudia Dubois represented Concordia at Hockey Canada’s national team summer showcase in Calgary, Alta. from Aug. 5 to 13.

Nearly 70 players from U Sports, the NCAA and the under-18 level took part in the development camp. Dubois and Gagné participated in on-ice training sessions, intrasquad games and various off-ice classroom sessions.

“I think we learned a lot of things off the ice because we had meetings about nutrition, and we had some meetings with sports psychologists,” Gagné said.

The camp started off with physical tests, including the bench press and the beep test. Dubois said they then learned about properly warming up before games and cooling down after games.

After the first few days of demanding fitness training, the development camp moved to the ice. Although the players came from different schools and won’t be playing together this season, they practiced as a team and focused on developing teamwork.

“It wasn’t a lot about the skills and the [individual] player,” Dubois said.

Caroll-Ann Gagné, centre, makes a pass between two opponents in a game versus the McGill Martlets during the 2016-17 season. Archive photo by Alex Hutchins

Last season, the Concordia Stingers women’s hockey team finished second in the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ), which allowed them to play at the National Championships in Napanee, Ont. Having played at Nationals allowed Dubois and Gagné to attend the development camp with some of the players they battled against at the tournament.

“It was nice to meet some girls from across Canada from different universities,” Dubois said.

When Gagné met players from the various schools, she said she made sure they knew where she was from. “I was proud to say I was from Concordia,” she said.

During the development camp, the two Stingers tried to meet as many players as possible and even befriended some of them. When asked if their friendships would last should Dubois and Gagné compete against their new friends this season, Dubois gave a swift response.

“We are friends,” she said. “But not on the ice.”

One friendship that will remain strong during the 2017-18 season is that of Dubois and Gagné. Dubois, the younger of the two, said having Gagné with her relieved a lot of stress on the way to the camp.

“It was nice to have Caroll-Ann with me and just be with her on the plane,” Dubois said. “We were both in the same situation.”

When asked about sharing the experience with her teammate, Gagné said, “She’s a third-year and I’m a fifth-year so I got to know her a bit better, but I already knew her well enough. But it was great to be part of this with her.”

For the Concordia women’s hockey program, having two Stingers invited to the development camp was a reward for the team’s continuous improvement over the past few seasons.

“For me, it rewarded all the hard work from my years at Concordia,” Gagné said.

In Gagné’s first season in 2013-14, the Stingers finished 5-15-0. Despite a bump in the road in 2015-16, they continued improving and achieved a 10-9-1 record last season. They lost to the McGill Martlets in the RSEQ Final, and went to Nationals only to lose to the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds in the bronze-medal game.

“Since my first year, we went through a lot, and I think we worked hard to get to Nationals,” Gagné said. “This invitation was a gift for us to go there and to prove what we learned last year, and to prove that Concordia is a good team.”

Gagné finished last season as the Stingers top-scoring defenceman with one goal and 12 assists. She said the knowledge they’re bringing back from the development camp will help her and Dubois make the Stingers better.

“I think that this was a great experience, and everything we learned will help us learn to play together as a team and work towards Nationals,” Gagné said.

Dubois finished second in team scoring behind forward Audrey Belzile with 11 goals and six assists last season. She has big goals for the Stingers ahead of the 2017-18 season.

“We want to make Nationals again but also to get a medal,” she said. “I know we could win the championship of our league. We’re going to have to work hard for sure, but we can do it.”

Gagné, who will be playing her last season at Concordia this year before pursuing a career in human resources, has a bit of a different goal.

“[I want to] just to play to have fun,” she said with a laugh.

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