Tag: Concordia Stingers

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Learning season for Stingers women’s hockey

women's hockey
Despite finishing second in the RSEQ, the Stingers couldn’t repeat as champions. Photo by Mackenzie Lad.

Concordia went 8-1-1 in 2019 after a rocky start to the regular season

It was a learning season for the Concordia Stingers women’s hockey team, which saw many ups and downs. They were eliminated in the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) semi-final in February.

The Stingers started the season with 11 rookies, and finished the regular season in second place with a 13-4-3 record. Head coach Julie Chu said that if there’s one thing to take away from this season, it’s growth.

“[Every season], we start at a different point,” Chu said. “This year, we [did so] because we were young and had a lot of new players.”

Forward Lidia Fillion (pictured) finished the season with seven goals. Photo by Mackenzie Lad.

After winning five of the first 10 games, Chu asked her players for patience.

“We had a young team in a lot of ways,” Chu said. “Even if they’re talented players who have been successful, it still takes time to develop and play a complete team game for a full 60 minutes. I think that’s what we saw in the first half of the season. We didn’t have the consistency and execution that we needed in order to win games.”

Five Stingers earned individual RSEQ awards, including forwards Audrey Belzile and Rosalie Bégin-Cyr, the Stingers’s best scorer and the RSEQ’s highest-scoring rookie, respectively. Chu said the working environment her players built help them to succeed.

“They want to get better and learn,” Chu said. “They push themselves, and they do it in a competitive and awesome environment where they find a way to support each other. I don’t think it’s surprising that we had individuals from the team who were honoured for successful seasons.”

Veterans Katherine Purchase, Devon Thompson, Melinda Prévost, and Sophie Gagnon won’t be back with the Stingers next season. Chu said these graduating players helped develop Concordia’s hockey program into what it is.

“They are huge part of why we have the foundation we have [today],” Chu said. “When young players arrive in our program, they know what to expect. They know what they’re building off [of], and I think that’s a really special part of the culture and tradition we want to have here at Concordia.”

Despite Purchase’s departure, the Stingers will still be able to count on goaltender Alice Philbert for the upcoming season. Chu said that having Philbert with the team for the seasons ahead is huge.

“Alice has been a great part of our team the last two years,” Chu said. “She always works hard, she wants to get better. She asks questions and because of that, she’s been able to develop and become a really great goaltender.”

The Stingers announced in December that forward Scout Watkins Southward of the Kingston Junior Ice Wolves will join the team for the beginning of next season. Chu thinks Watkins Southward will bring a lot to the team.

“She has the work ethic, the personality, and the character we want to include in our program,” Chu said. “I think that she will arrive and have a really big impact right off the start. We’re really excited for everything that she will be able to bring.”

Main photo by Mackenzie Lad.

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Lisa-Marie Breton-Lebreux has an undivided passion for the Stingers

Breton-Lebreux in front of her plaque for the Concordia Sports Hall of Fame. Photo by Alec Brideau.

Lisa-Marie Breton-Lebreux always wanted to be at Concordia

The Concordia Stingers’s strength and conditioning coordinator, Lisa-Marie Breton-Lebreux, who is a member of the Concordia Sports Hall of Fame, has been to five national championships with the women’s hockey team.

It was when she participated in the 1993 Canadian Junior Hockey Championship presented at Concordia that Breton-Lebreux’s life changed. The St-Zacharie native, 15 years old at the time, said she didn’t know university hockey existed prior to the tournament.

“We, team Quebec, were changing in the Stingers’s locker room. I then saw all the pictures [of the Stingers hockey teams] and realized [university hockey] existed,” said Breton-Lebreux, who decided then she wanted to play for Concordia. “At that moment I started having a dream, not only to go to the Olympic Games, but to learn English, come to Concordia and one day become captain. It was my dream, and from there I started training a lot.”

Breton-Lebreux (#26) celebrating her Clarkson Cup win in 2009. Stingers assistant coach Caroline Ouellette is second from the right. Photo by Esther Bernard.

Breton-Lebreux, who is in charge of strength and conditioning for all Stingers teams except men’s basketball, already knew she wanted to work in that department since her first years with the Stingers. She said she loved her training experience, given by Reg Grant at the time, followed by Scott Livingston.

“I was at all their trainings,” Breton-Lebreux said. “They had summer trainings at 7 a.m. and I was there three times a week. I was passionate.”

The strength and conditioning coordinator loves her role at Concordia. Breton-Lebreux said there was no doubt in her mind that this is where she wanted to work.

“I love it,” Breton-Lebreux. “I’ve been training since the age of 13. Training is a passion for me, and this is where I wanted to work.”

An impressive fact about Breton-Lebreux is that she co-founded the Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL), which Les Canadiennes de Montréal are part of. The four-time Clarkson Cup winner, as part of the CWHL’s championship team, said the league was founded when the National Women’s Hockey League (NWHL) ceased activities in 2007.

“In the NWHL, there were different owners who were paying for their team’s costs,” Breton-Lebreux said. “In 2007, there had been conflicts [related to money]. Owners then closed the league. It wasn’t making sense because you had a lot of players, with many of them being the best players in the world, not having a place to play.”

Another interesting aspect of Breton-Lebreux’s life is her roller hockey career. She said her passion for roller hockey actually started at Concordia.

“We had a roller hockey league during the summer,” Breton-Lebreux said. She then decided to establish a women’s team, as a complement to ice hockey. “I heard there was a Canadian [roller hockey] team, so I went to the team’s training camp in Toronto and I made the team.”

Despite not realizing her dream of being an Olympian in ice hockey, Breton-Lebreux succeeded in roller hockey, and made the national team in 2006.

“I was always in the best scorers in the league,” she said about her Olympic dream. “Yet, I was always being told I had something missing. That’s because chances to continue in the program are better if you make the team before the age of 22, and because I didn’t, I was like the seventh defenceman.”

In 2006, the Canadian team told Breton-Lebreux she wouldn’t make the Olympic team, and thought her dream to represent Canada would be over. “Yet, I had the opportunity to make the Canadian [roller hockey] team, and I went to the World Roller Hockey Championships and won the tournament. Life gave it back to me,” she said.

Main photo by Alec Brideau.

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Stingers lose quarter-final game at nationals against Ryerson

Popovic won the RSEQ’s coach of the year, but said he would change the individual awards for team trophies. Photo by Mackenzie Lad.

HALIFAX — The Concordia Stingers men’s basketball team lost 87-47 in their national quarter-final match against the Ryerson Rams at the Scotiabank Centre, in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

“All of our guys are here for the first time at the nationals and we were a bit nervous,” said Stingers head coach Rastko Popovic.

Popovic, who won the 2018-19 Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) coach of the year, brought the Stingers to their first nationals since 2012. They scored only six points in the first quarter and were down 26-6.

“We started off slow and, against a team like that, you can’t really have a slow start because it’ll put you down like they did,” said fourth-year guard Adrian Armstrong.

Guard Adrian Armstrong went 2/12 from three-point range in the game. Photo by Mackenzie Lad.

Popovic thought the start of the game could have been different if Armstrong had mande a few early shots. Armstrong shot 38 per cent from field goal range and 16 per cent from three-point range in the game.

“I thought we had two good looks to start for Adrian. If you knock those down, then the game could go the other way,” Popovic said.

The low start didn’t discourage Armstrong, who finished with a game-high 19 points. Late in the first half, he was able to knock down a few shots. With 31 seconds left in the second quarter, Armstrong hit a mid-range jumper to give the Stingers a confidence boost. They tied the Rams 15-15 in points in the second quarter, but the score was still 41-21 at halftime.

In the second half, the Rams got off to a hot start, making three of their first four shots and getting on an early 6-1 run. The Stingers didn’t quit and kept trying to find open shots. Concordia was able to penetrate open lanes, but unable to connect on multiple occasions because of Ryerson’s size. Concordia has three players at 6’7”, but Ryerson has five players either the same height or taller.

“Their size and length forced me and others to take shots late in the [shot] clock,” said Armstrong.

Despite the Rams’s size advantage, fifth-year guard Ricardo Monge believes that the Stingers can improve on being aggressive.

“We had many wide open layups and open shots, but we have to make them,” Monge said.

Monge finally gets to nationals

In his first appearance at the tournament, Monge finished with 11 points, five assists, four rebounds and three steals.

“It’s a great experience to be out here and get to experience this,” said Monge, who was the RSEQ MVP this season. With just over five minutes left in the fourth, he made back-to-back layups and a shot from top of the key to keep his team going.  

“I’m very proud of everything [Monge] has accomplished,” said Popovic. “It’s great for him, in his fifth year, to get an opportunity to come here and play at the nationals. He has done so much for the program and it’s just disappointing to come here and to lose a game like this.”

The Stingers lost to the Saint-Mary’s University Huskies, 84-67, Saturday morning in the consolation semi-final at the Scotiabank Centre.

Main photo by Mackenzie Lad.

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Stingers had a long journey to the championship

Guard Ricardo Monge (centre) won his first championship in his last game with the Stingers. Photo by Mackenzie Lad.

Basketball head coach Rastko Popovic is proud of everybody involved

The Concordia Stingers men’s basketball team played their first preseason game on Aug. 6, 2018, against the Ole Miss Rebels. Almost seven months later, the Stingers won the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) championship, beating the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) Citadins, 73-69.

Since the Stingers last won a title in 2012, they changed their coach from John Dore to Rastko Popovic. Photo by Mackenzie Lad.

“To become a champion, it’s a long road,” said head coach Rastko Popovic after the Stingers’s win against the Citadins on March 2. “You don’t just show up; you have to put in the work. I told our guys that game against Ole Miss paid off.”

From that first game against the Rebels, the Stingers played 33 preseason, regular season, and playoff games. They won 20 times, and had an 11-5 regular-season record.

“We struggled with some injuries, but I thought we had a pretty good regular season,” Popovic said. “We had some losses near the end, but you can’t expect to win every game in our league when you play each other so many times.”

For most of the Stingers, this championship title has been the result of hard work throughout the years. They last won the title in 2012, before Popovic was named head coach in 2015. Under him, the Stingers lost two semi-final games in 2016 and 2017, before losing last year’s final to McGill.  

“We just had progression every year, but lost a couple of tough games in the playoffs,” Popovic said. “You have to learn the daily habits of becoming a champion and you have to live by that. We pushed our guys, and I’m so proud of our guys.”

Although the team had a handful of rookies this year, they might not have won the championship without help from their veterans. Fifth-year players Garry Merisier and Ricardo Monge stepped up and performed when it counted—Merisier played 22 minutes and collected four rebounds in the final, while Monge had a team-high 19 points and made four of his six three-point shots.

“Big-shot Rick, MVP, team captain, whatever you want to call him, he does it all for us,” said guard Adrian Armstrong.

Monge, who won the RSEQ’s MVP trophy, played in the last home game of his Stingers career, and his teammates saw it as inspiring. “We were going to ride or die with him making [important] shots,” said forward Olivier Simon. “He’s been working on shooting all year. He has confidence [in himself], so we’re not surprised.”

One of Monge’s biggest shots of the game came right at the end of the third quarter, while the Citadins started to come back. He made a three pointer, giving the Stingers a 48-43 lead heading into the final quarter. Popovic said it gave his team energy for the fourth, and helped them win.

“This is the materializing of all the hard work I’ve put in throughout all these years,” Monge said. “It never happened for me, but it feels good to win my first championship.”

The point guard said only his team knows exactly what they had to go through to reach this point in the season. “We worked so hard, we’ve been through so many ups and downs,” Monge said. “Practices in cold gyms, hot gyms, it’s just a grind. It’s really special.”

Popovic added his team wouldn’t have won the championship without the work from everybody around the team. “I’m so proud of our coaching staff, our therapists, everybody in the [athletics] department,” he said. “This is for everyone involved with Concordia basketball, from the alumni to the supporters. Everybody has a piece of this [trophy], and helped us and seen our progression since day one.”  

The Stingers will now play at the national tournament in Halifax from March 8 to 10. When they last won the RSEQ title in 2012, they lost two games at nationals. Popovic played at the tournament for the Stingers in 2005, also in Halifax, and lost in the final.

“It’s the first time at nationals for all these guys,” Popovic said. “Going to nationals is the best experience of your life. You represent your school and it’s just a great reward for all the hard work these guys have put in.”

The players want to represent not only their school, but also the RSEQ as a whole, as they are the only team from Quebec. “We want to go out and show Quebec is one of the stronger conferences,” Armstrong said. “Obviously, we had some respect this season being ranked [in the Top 10], but it’s not enough.”

Main photos by Mackenzie Lad.

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Concordia-McGill rivalry renewed in playoffs

Guard Caroline Task (#7) helped the Stingers eliminate the Martlets in the semi-finals. Photo by Gabe Chevalier.

Women’s basketball, hockey teams faced Martlets in postseason action

The Concordia-McGill rivalry is one of the best in university sports, but it takes on another level when the two schools meet in the playoffs. That was exactly the case this season for both the women’s hockey and basketball teams in their respective Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) semi-finals.

The Stingers only won two of seven games versus McGill in women’s hockey this season. Photo by Mackenzie Lad.

The Stingers women’s hockey team hadn’t beaten McGill in five previous playoff series. Their bad results against their cross-town rivals continued this year, losing in two games. McGill is now 12-0 against Concordia in the playoffs since the Stingers won the 2005 final in three games.

The women’s basketball team has had the same misfortune against the Martlets. Before this year’s playoff match-up, they hadn’t beaten McGill in the playoffs since 2002, losing in 2016 and 2017. This year’s team turned history around and beat the Martlets in the RSEQ semi-final, 62-55, at the Concordia Gym on Feb. 27. They also ended McGill’s seven-year run as provincial champions.

“All of us just wanted to dethrone them, as bad as that sounds,” said third-year guard Caroline Task after the game. “It was time for someone else to take the lead, so I think we went into this knowing this is what we wanted to do.”

It was a tightly-contested game, typical of the Concordia-McGill rivalry in any sport, with a loud and energetic crowd. The Stingers had a 10-point lead in the second quarter, and the Martlets responded well, leading by eight points in the fourth. That’s when the Stingers crowd got behind their team as Concordia scored 19 points in the last five minutes.

“Obviously there are a bit of butterflies in your stomach when you’re down with the time going down,” Task said. “Not for a second I didn’t think we wouldn’t pick it up.”

The rivalry takes on a whole new level each year at the Corey Cup. Photo by Hannah Ewen.
Missed opportunity

On the men’s side of basketball and hockey, there were no Concordia-McGill playoff meetings this year. McGill’s men’s basketball team lost in their semi-final, which would have set up a final against Concordia. In hockey, the Stingers met the Queen’s Gaels in the first round of the playoffs, but should have played McGill.

According to U Sports hockey insider Victor Findlay, the Gaels dressed an ineligible player in their final game of the season. The Ontario University Athletics Association only sanctioned them after their series against Concordia started, deducting them a point. Originally, the Gaels finished third, and McGill in fourth, but because of the loss of points, McGill jumped into the third seed. They would have played the sixth-placed Stingers if the issue had been dealt with earlier.

This could have set up a fantastic series between the schools. “It’s fun to play,” said rookie defenceman Bradley Lalonde after the Corey Cup on Feb. 2. “[The Ed Meagher arena] is kind of smaller, so when you get a lot of people, there’s a lot of noise.”

Stingers captain Philippe Hudon has seen it all from the rivalry during his five years at Concordia. “It’s an old rivalry, and these kind of games speak for themselves,” he said after the Corey Cup. “There should be more exposure to this kind of game, it’s fun hockey and the rivalry is tremendous.”

Fans will get another taste of the Concordia-McGill rivalry when the football season kicks off in September.

With files from Simon Prud’homme. Main photo by Mackenzie Lad.

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Injuries challenged rookies in men’s hockey

The Stingers finished the regular season with a 15-11-2 record.

Head coach Marc-André Élement looks to learn for next season

It was a season of adversity for the Concordia Stingers men’s hockey team. The team went to the U Sports nationals last year after winning the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) bronze-medal game. They then lost many of their best scorers before this season and started the year with 12 rookies. The Stingers were eliminated in the first round of the OUA playoffs.

Simon Bourque joined the Stingers midway through this season. Photo by Hannah Ewen.

Including goaltenders, 32 players played at least one game for the Stingers this season. Head coach Marc-André Élément said the team has been dealing with injuries all year, and had to make tough lineup decisions on a consistent basis.

“It was unreal,” Élément said. “[Philippe] Charbonneau even played a part of the season as a forward [as opposed to defence] before Christmas because we had too many injuries up front. However, it’s part of the game. I think we’ll be better [in the future] with the adversity we faced—even us, the coaching staff.”

First-year defenceman Charlie Roy saw a positive aspect of this season. He said the team is young and will benefit from what they experienced these past months.

“I think in the second half of the season, we brought our game to another level with the acquisitions that were made during the holidays,” Roy said. “It looks good for the seasons ahead.”

The Stingers’s best scorer in 2018-19 was second-year defenceman Carl Neill, who finished the campaign with 33 points in 28 games. Élément said Neill has proven he can produce offensively since joining the Stingers.

Carl Neill (#32) led the team in points and will be playing in his third season next year. Photo by Hannah Ewen.

“Neill is really an offensive defenceman,” Élément said. “You need offence from [defence] if you’re having less of it from up front. He did a good job this year.”

Three of the Stingers’s 10 best scorers this season were first-year players. Rookie centre Hugo Roy finished the year with 19 goals and 26 points in 28 games, which ranked him fifth in the league in goals, and first of all rookies. However, Roy won’t be back with the Stingers next season, as he signed a professional contract with the Milwaukee Admirals in the American Hockey League.

Every year, Concordia’s hockey team attracts more talented athletes and helps develop players for professional leagues. In the past, Élement has brought players to the next level, and that helps Concordia’s visibility.

“It seems like most of the young players who came to Concordia have always had success,” Élément said. “Those are guys that give exposure to your program. It puts our program on the map.”

After defenceman Simon Bourque and goaltender Anthony Dumont-Bouchard joined the team in January, the Stingers will add two other experienced players from the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) in 2019-20, as Tyler Hylland and Alex Katerinakis will join the team for the beginning of the season.

“I’m excited for next season,” said Charlie Roy, who played with Hylland and Katerinakis. “Players coming in, like Katerinakis and Hylland, are good friends. We still have to see who will be back and who will not, but I’m looking at next season with a good eye.”

Main photo by Hannah Ewen.

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Stingers win RSEQ title in men’s basketball

This was the Stingers’s first title since 2012. Photo by Mackenzie Lad.

Concordia beats UQAM Citadins 73-69 at home

The Concordia Stingers men’s basketball team won the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) title Saturday night at the Concordia Gym. They beat the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) Citadins in the final, 73-69.

“Being a champion is the best feeling in the world,” said Stingers head coach Rastko Popovic. “I’m so proud of our guys.”

Guard Ricardo Monge accepts the trophy from a RSEQ representative. Photo by Mackenzie Lad.

The Stingers finished first in the RSEQ during the regular season with an 11-5 record, and earned the right to host the game. They beat the Bishop’s Gaiters last Wednesday in the semi-final, while UQAM beat McGill in the other semi-final.

The Stingers opened the game strong, getting the home crowd behind them. They had a 13-11 advantage after the first quarter, and dominated the second to hold a 27-21 lead at halftime. They started the third quarter strong, but the Citadins battled back and kept the score close.

The Stingers celebrate with their trophy. Photo by Mackenzie Lad.

A Citadins bucket cut the Stingers’s lead to two points in the final minute of the third quarter. Then, fifth-year guard Ricardo Monge hit a three-point shot to give Concordia a 48-43 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

“That shot was big and it gave us confidence,” Popovic said. “They hung around, but then we made some monster plays down the stretch. Sam [Ghandour] had a huge three with two seconds left on the shot clock, Olivier [Simon] had a big tip-in with a backwards shot, I don’t know how that went in.”

“When I play, I just think about the play and just make reads, I couldn’t tell you what was going through my mind,” Monge said. “There’s nothing too special where I think ‘I need to make threes now.’”

Every time the Citadins cut the Stingers’ lead, Concordia scored timely baskets in the fourth quarter. Even though Simon’s behind-the-back shot looked like a lucky bounce, guard Adrian Armstrong said it shows how hard the team has worked through the years.

“He caught the ball, saw the shot clock and he knew he had to get it to the rim,” Armstrong said. “In his rookie year, I don’t know if he would have made that play.”

Simon finished the game with a double-double, collecting 18 points and 10 rebounds. Monge led the Stingers with 19 points, while Sami Ghandour had 17. The Stingers will now play at nationals in Halifax from March 7 to 10.

Women lose final

The Stingers women’s basketball team were also playing in the RSEQ final Saturday night. They lost to the Université de Laval Rouge et Or 75-55 in Quebec City.

More to come.  Main photo by Mackenzie Lad.

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Men’s basketball team heads to second-straight final

Sami Ghandour had 23 points in the win. Photo by Gabe Chevalier.

79-71 win against Bishop’s Gaiters a result of team effort

The Concordia Stingers men’s basketball team advanced to the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) final for a second year in a row. They beat the Bishop’s Gaiters 79-71 in the semi-final on Wednesday night at the Concordia Gym.

The Stingers will now host the RSEQ final after playing it at McGill last year. Photo by Gabe Chevalier.

“So many guys stepped up; it’s a great win. I am really proud of the guys,” said head coach Rastko Popovic. “It’s all about team culture. Guys understand that they need to work hard; they want to listen. We pushed them to be the best.”

The Stingers had the lead for most of the game, except at the beginning of the fourth quarter when the Gaiters pushed back for a four-point lead.

That did not last long because the Stingers were hot from three-point range, finishing 11 three-point shots in the game. One of those was a highlight-reel from centre-court by Adrian Armstrong, who finished the game with 22 points.

After last year’s defeat in the final against McGill, the Stingers know what they must do to win the title. “Guys were not celebrating in the locker room. They know that it’s not our goal,” Popovic said. “That’s what I like about our guys”.

Adrian Armstrong made six of his 14 shots from three-point range. Photo by Gabe Chevalier.

The Stingers now host the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) Citadins, who beat McGill in the first semi-final, Saturday night at 7 p.m..

“We know that they are going to come hard; they have nothing to lose, it’s in our home court,” the head coach added. “We are looking forward to the challenge.”

Armstrong was happy about his performance but he is focusing on the next game. “It’s day-to-day. Now we focus on UQAM,” Armstrong said. “We know it’s going to be a tough game.”

In four games against the Citadins this season, the Stingers went 2-2, winning both games at home.

Main photo by Gabe Chevalier.

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Stingers end Martlets title run in semi-final win

The Stingers used the crowd’s energy to their advantage. Photo by Gabe Chevalier.

Concordia scores 19 points in final five minutes to move onto to RSEQ final

The Concordia Stingers women’s basketball team ended the McGill Martlets title run in the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) semi-final. They won 62-55 at the Concordia Gym Wednesday night, ending McGill’s seven-year run as champions.

The Stingers missed the playoffs last year with a 4-12 record, and get to play in the final this year. Photo by Gabe Chevalier.

After domination in the first quarter that gave the Stingers a 19-9 lead, they saw the Martlets coming back in the second quarter. The score was 30-29 for Concordia at halftime, and the Martlets took the lead in the third quarter. Concordia trailed behind and were losing by eight with five minutes left in the fourth quarter. The Stingers went on a 19-4 run to close out the game and get the win.

“I thought they showed a lot of character,” said head coach Tenicha Gittens, who was happy with her team’s performance. “When you are down seven points, it’s easy to just get down but we came back […]. You can get tired but you won’t be playing tomorrow. You can be tired next month.”

Gittens added that defence kept them in the game in the second half, allowing only 26 points. “Offensively, [the shots] were not falling,” Gittens said. “Our girls did a good job adjusting during the fourth quarter.

A team filled with rookies, this was the first playoff experience for most of them. Photo by Gabe Chevalier.

Gittens also saw leadership from guards Caroline Task and forward Coralie Dumont when it mattered. Dumont played 39 of 40 minutes, collecting nine rebounds and scoring eight points. Rookie guard Myriam Leclerc also played 39 minutes, and had the most points in the game with 28.

“We never gave up,” Task said. “We had ups and downs, everybody played their part in the game.”

The Stingers will play the Université de Laval Rouge et Or on Saturday in Quebec City in the RSEQ final. The 15-1 Rouge et Or beat Concordia all four times this season, but only won by two points in their last meeting on Feb. 21.

“They won it last time but we’ll win it when it matters,” Task said about the final. “I am really excited. We played them last week and we fell short by two points and that means nothing. We know what we need to do to win the next game.”

The Stingers return to the final after losing to McGill in 2017. Laval will be looking to avenge their loss at last year’s finals, also against the Martlets.

Main photo by Gabe Chevalier.

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Martlets eliminate Stingers in RSEQ semi-final

The Stingers failed to defend their RSEQ championship title from last season. Photo by Mackenzie Lad.

Concordia loses game two 5-3 after giving up three-goal lead

The Concordia Stingers women’s hockey team were eliminated in the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) semi-finals by the McGill Martlets Saturday afternoon. The Martlets won 5-3 after the Stingers opened the game with a 3-0 lead at the McConnell Arena.

The game started well for the Stingers as they established dominance early in the first period. Forward Claudia Dubois opened the scoring 10 minutes into the game with her first goal of the series. Concordia head coach Julie Chu said that after Thursday’s loss in game one, the team wanted to improve for Saturday.

The Stingers haven’t beat the Martlets in a playoff game since 2005. Photo by Mackenzie Lad.

“We talked about our mentality heading into this game,” Chu said. “It [was] a one-game season at that point for us, so we had to be ready to play and be ready to jump.”

The Stingers had a three-goal lead in the second period when forwards Rosalie Bégin-Cyr and Maria Manarolis scored two goals in less than five minutes. However, the Stingers lost their momentum after Manarolis’s goal, as the Martlets called a time-out and made a goaltending change. The Martlets then scored five unanswered goals. Chu said her team maintained a good position all game long despite the score.

“It wasn’t about a panic moment or anything,” Chu said. “It’s just a couple of moments that [the Martlets] found the back of the net, but, ultimately, they got four goals on seven shots [in the third period].”

The Stingers also had seven shots in the third period, but couldn’t beat back-up Martlets goalie Amanda Hadwen. Chu said she was still happy with how her team competed in the third period.

“I think the total effort of our team was really solid,” Chu said. “They’ve been battling all year long to be the team that they are, and I’m really proud of them. I think we didn’t come to play in the first game. This one we came to play.”

The Stingers won the RSEQ championship last year, but couldn’t win a playoff game this season. The head coach wants to use this loss as motivation for next season.

“This is definitely a tough one to swallow,” Chu said. “It will hurt for a long time, but for those who get the opportunity to return next year, that will be their fire. It will be their fire to not feel like this again and to know that we have it in this team.”

Main photo by Mackenzie Lad.

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Martlets dominate Stingers 6-2 in game one of semi-final

The Stingers will play a must-win game Saturday afternoon at McConnell Arena. Photo by Gabe Chevalier.

Concordia discouraged after allowing early first goal

The Concordia Stingers women’s hockey team fell to the McGill Martlets in game one of the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) semi-final. The visiting Martlets beat the Stingers 6-2 at the Ed Meagher arena Thursday night.

“We saw a little bit of our youth as a team out there,” said Stingers head coach Julie Chu. “We got a little bit nervous and a little tight in that first period. Bottom line is that McGill just out-executed us today. They jumped on a lot of opportunities today that we gave them.”

Rosalie Bégin-Cyr received her rookie of the year award before the game. Photo by Gabe Chevalier.

Prior to the game, five Stingers players were honoured as part of the RSEQ first, second, and rookie team all-stars for the 2018-19 season. Forwards Rosalie Bégin-Cyr and Audrey Belzile, along with defencemen Sandrine Lavictoire, Brigitte Laganière, and Claudia Fortin were those honoured. Bégin-Cyr received top honours as rookie of the year after being the highest-scoring rookie in the conference.

The Martlets got off to a flying start, scoring a mere minute into the game off a lucky bounce from a Christiana Colizza shot. Though momentum was in McGill’s favour, the Stingers caught a break with an unassisted goal by Lidia Fillion five minutes later. The tie game would be short lived, however, as the Martlets added two more goals in the period, including a shorthanded five-on-three goal.

The second period began much like the first, and the Stingers dug themselves into a deeper deficit following two early Martlets goals. By the time the score was 5-1 in favour of the Martlets, goaltender Katherine Purchase was replaced by Alice Philbert.

Each game between the two teams this season was won by the road team. Photo by Gabe Chevalier.

Belzile scored shortly thereafter to give the Stingers new life and cut the Martlet’s lead. By the end of the second period, the Martlets outshot the Stingers 32-14.

“After the first goal, we got a little discouraged,” said Belzile following the game. “We were not focused on our details […], so we need to work on that that.”

Although the Stingers came out swinging in the third period, the Martlets were the only ones able to find the back of the net. Lauren Jardin scored a minute into the third to seal the deal for McGill.

The Martlets now head into game two of the best-of-three semi-final with a chance to eliminate the Stingers.

“It’s a three-game series for a reason,” Chu said. “They know there’s a reset and the season is not over. We’re going to assess what went on today and move on from there.”

The Stingers will aim to keep their season alive, and continue defending their RSEQ title on Saturday at 2 p.m. at McGill’s McConnell Arena.

Main photo by Gabe Chevalier.

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Carl Neill is a leader in all aspects

The Stingers season ended last Friday, but Neill wants to stay at Concordia until he finishes school. Photo by Hannah Ewen.

Second-year Stinger uses past as a forward to help him as defenceman

When Carl Neill played hockey as a kid, his dad wanted to make sure Neill didn’t become a goalie, because he was one himself. “He encouraged me to not do that part of the sport, so I’m very grateful for that,” Neill said.

Neill’s dad probably made the right decision because his son used his talents as a defenceman to lead the Concordia Stingers men’s hockey team in points this season, with 33. Neill joined the Stingers last year after the Vancouver Canucks, the NHL team that drafted him in the fifth round in 2015, didn’t sign him to a contract. He was named to the U SPORTS all-rookie team last season after earning 31 points, the most by a defenceman in the country.

Neill was drafted by the Vancouver Canucks in 2015, but wasn’t signed to a contract. Photo by Hannah Ewen.

Neill added that throughout his hockey career, his dad was always his biggest influence. “I’m an only child, so I spent a lot of time with my dad growing up,” said Neill, who’s from Lachute, Que. “Just the way he is as a guy, with his judgement and character, he was a big role model.”

With nine goals and 55 assists in 56 regular-season games with the Stingers, Neill is the prototypical offensive defenceman. He tries to model his game after Washington Capitals defenceman John Carlson, who had 68 points and won the Stanley Cup last season. “He’s good all-around,” said Neill. “He picks up points, he’s good defensively, and he’s the type of player you need whether you’re up a goal or down a goal.”

Neill started playing hockey as a forward, and says that’s what helps make him so dangerous offensively. He switched positions in pee-wee, and developed his defensive game while playing for the Sherbrooke Phoenix in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QJMHL). “Once I got older, I knew when to jump in the play and make the right decisions,” he said.

The defenceman spent four-and-a-half seasons with the Phoenix, first playing with them at 16 years old in 2012-13. He became team captain in 2015-16, and halfway through the following season, they traded him to the Charlottetown Islanders for two draft picks. Neill said it was emotional to leave Sherbrooke, but understands they had to make the trade to build the team for the future.

“Playing junior hockey at 16 was really special, and it was my first time away from home, so the city really took me in with open arms,” Neill said about his time in Sherbrooke. “A lot of teams in junior are run like a business, but [it] felt like a family. A lot of the staff, coaches, and players I’m still in contact with today.”

Two of Neill’s former teammates in Sherbrooke during the 2014-15 season, Raphaël Lafontaine and Charles-Éric Légaré, helped influence him to join the Stingers in 2017. In turn, Neill influenced forward Hugo Roy to join the team this season. Roy played three seasons with the Phoenix, and was team captain after Neill left.

“Recruiting comes a lot from players who know each other,” Neill said. “Especially schools around [Montreal]. They pretty much have all the same things to offer, especially hockey-wise […]. Knowing Legaré and Lafontaine, I got a good sense of what the program was like.”

As was the case with Sherbrooke, Neill quickly established himself as a leader for the Stingers. In just his second season, he was chosen as assistant captain, alongside forward Philippe Sanche and defenceman Alexandre Gosselin. As a leader, Neill said he wants to be held accountable.

“I’m not going to start yelling at guys about plays I didn’t do myself,” Neill said. “I try to stay pretty calm and lead by example on the ice.”

The Stingers had a star-studded rookie class last year that included Neill and forward Massimo Carozza. Both were named to the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) all-rookie team last year. Most of those players left to pursue other opportunities, such as Carozza, who went to play professional hockey in Italy.

Neill and forward Jean-Philippe Beaulieu were the only two rookies from last season to stay with the team this year. Neill, who studies human relations, wants to graduate from university before thinking about a professional career.  

“With Vancouver not working out, I had a few pro options [in the minor leagues], but they were all a one-year deal,” Neill said. “I felt more comfortable going to school and getting a degree first […]. For me, it was tough; you see guys whose careers don’t pan out and they have nothing left.”

Neill said he chose to study human relations because it suits his personality. He applies things he’s learned in the classroom to the locker room, such as conflict resolution and working with different types of people, which has helped him be a better leader. Once he graduates from Concordia, he plans to continue pursuing his dream of playing professional hockey.

“I need to round off my game,” Neill said about what he needs to improve. “Offence has always been a key part of my game, but a better understanding defensively would get me to the next level.”

The Stingers season ended in the first round of the playoffs against the Queen’s Gaels last week.

Main photo by Hannah Ewen.

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