Tag: hockey

Despite a hard-fought display of grit and resilience, the Concordia Stingers women’s hockey team’s season unfortunately came to a close on Friday evening at Ed Meagher Arena, after the team lost a 4-2 decision at the hands of conference rival Université de Montréal Carabins.

The Stingers dropped the first game in the best-of-three series last Wednesday night in a 4-1 decision at CEPSUM.

The game’s first goal, scored by forward Josée-Ann Deschênes, came off of a bizarre and controversial call by the referees. The Montréal forward’s shot appeared to have hit the post and play continued on but the goal light came on. After a lengthy huddle, the referees awarded Montreal with the game’s first goal.

The strange call was an obvious momentum shifter as, soon after, Montreal netted their second goal after a giveaway along the boards by Concordia led to a quick pass in front and goal by Carabin Fabienne Marcotte.

After the game, Stingers coach Les Lawton commented on the first goal by saying that, with his good angle on the shot, he thought that “everyone in the arena saw it go off the post,” adding that the referees were perhaps a little “trigger-happy.”

After a rather lacklustre first period in which the Carabins opened up an early 2-0 lead, the Stingers picked up the pace in the second period. With the help of a strong forecheck up front and good defensive pinching at the point, it began to look as though the Stingers were going to fight their way back.

However, as the momentum was starting to shift in the Stingers’ favour, a brutal giveaway from behind Concordia’s goal right in front to the stick of Montréal’s Cassandra Dupuis led to a top-corner goal, giving Montréal a three-goal lead.

The third period saw a continuous forechecking presence in the offensive zone by the Stingers. Despite the strong display by offence and volume of shots being fired on the Montréal goal, it was again the Carabins who found the back of the net for a fourth time with a shot that deflected off a skate in front and went in.

While things were looking bleak, the Stingers continued to pressure on, finally catching a break at 14:27 in the third when Jaymee Shell scored Concordia’s first goal to break the shutout bid.

Thirty seconds later, Stinger defender Veronica Lang scored another quick goal, cutting the lead down to 4-2 and inspiring hope for a Stingers comeback. However, their effort fell short, as a costly Stingers penalty chewed precious time off the clock, leading the Carabins to a victory.

Although the Stingers’ season fell short of a finals appearance, coach Lawton, in his 29th season with the team, celebrated his goaltender’s solid performance during the game despite allowing four goals in a loss. Lawton said that goaltender Audrey Doyon-Lessard “has been outstanding for us all year long and once again gave us a chance to battle back in this game.”

The game proved to be a disappointment for Concordia, who outshot the Carabins 37-28. Montréal capitalized on the Concordia giveaways while the Stingers could not find the back of the net until the end of the game.

Coach Lawton believed his young team played with a lot of heart and understood that his players were nervous in such a big game, which ultimately led to the turnovers.

The Stingers coach also added that his team has a “bright future and this game should hopefully be looked at as a stepping stone for next season.”

Concordia assistant captain Maggie MacNeil also expressed her thoughts on the disappointing end to the team’s season. MacNeil thought that the team came a long way and showed much character throughout this season.

MacNeil said that with the experience brought on by playing at a high level of CIS hockey, they will “definitely be hungry and better prepared next year.”

 

The Stingers suffered a 4-1 loss to the McGill Redmen Sunday afternoon at Ed Meagher arena to surrender the Corey Cup for the eighth time since 2002. Concordia also dropped their Saturday afternoon game 5-2 against the Carleton Ravens.

The Corey Cup was created in 1988 by Ronald Corey, who was then the president and governor of the Montreal Canadiens. For 23 years, the Stingers have faced off against either McGill or UQTR in a battle for supremacy between Montreal’s university-level hockey teams.

The game was no easy task for the Stingers. McGill, the second-ranked team in the country, has been dominating the OUA East conference this year and has only suffered two regular-time losses in 28 games.

The Redmen imposed their presence early in the first period as an undisciplined Stingers team offered them a 5-on-3 opportunity for over a minute. However, Concordia goaltender Raffaele D’Orso stood strong to keep the score blank.

Five minutes later, at 10:32, McGill opened the score. Coming off the rush, Marc-Andre Dorion fired a rocket past D’Orso’s left shoulder to give his team the lead. Jean-François Boisvert and Guillaume Doucet assisted on the tally.

Just over two minutes later, the Redmen doubled their lead when Doucet pulled a great forehand-to-backhand move in front of D’Orso to beat the Stingers goaltender on a breakaway.

McGill took a three-goal lead late in the frame when Boisvert beat D’Orso with a one-timer in front of the net. Simon Marcotte-Légaré made a good play behind the net and was able to get the puck to his teammate for the goal.

Although the Stingers had four penalties, they were able to stay perfect on the penalty kill. D’Orso stopped 17 shots and was not to blame for the McGill goals.

An energized Concordia team came out for the second and their efforts paid off. Just over three minutes in, the Stingers reduced McGill’s lead to two after Eric Begin surprised Redmen goaltender Hubert Morin with a hard slap shot from the right half-board. Alexis Piette had the only assist on the play.

However, with only 4:34 remaining in the second frame, McGill bumped their lead back to three. Christophe Longpré-Poirier grabbed a rebound in front of the net and forced D’Orso to make the first move before he beat the goaltender to his left, making the score 4-1.

The third period was rather uneventful as the Redmen completely shut down the play. They put on an impressive display of defensive hockey to limit the Stingers to only six shots on net in the frame.

The Stingers pushed to come back but were stopped each time. When the tight play of the skaters wasn’t preventing the Stingers from entering the offensive zone, Redmen goaltender Morin was blocking every shot.

McGill played a perfect game on the penalty front, remaining disciplined throughout the game while Concordia was sent to the box six times.

D’Orso made 37 saves while Morin stopped 27 of the 28 pucks he faced.

The Stingers had to play without three of their regular six defencemen: Kiefer Orsini, Jesse Goodsell and Lyle Van Wieren. As a result, forwards Begin and Marc-Andre Element had to take shifts as defencemen.

“We were playing with one of our top right-wingers on the back end,” said Stingers coach Kevin Figsby. “And I still thought we handled the game pretty well. Apart from the first eight minutes, I thought we dominated the play,” he said.

Figsby said the loss was not all bad, as the Stingers will now meet UQTR in the first round of the playoffs.

“…To be brutally honest with you, we were hoping to get a matchup with UQTR too. So am I upset? No. We went in wanting to win today’s game and we played as well as we could.”

On Saturday, Francois Lanctot-Marcotte and Kyle Kelly scored for Concordia in a 5-2 loss to Carleton. The Ravens’ Jeff Hayes was the first star of the game with a four-point effort.

The Stingers open the playoffs this Wednesday as they face the UQTR Patriotes in Trois-Rivières; the puck drops at 2 p.m. The Stingers will be at home Saturday for the second game of the best-of-three series.