Sophie Gagnon – The Concordian

Forward Sophie Gagnon scores twice as Katherine Purchase collects third win

The Concordia Stingers women’s hockey team beat the Carleton Ravens 5-2 Sunday afternoon at the Ed Meagher Arena. Forward Sophie Gagnon scored two goals and added an assist in the victory.

The Stingers won all four games played against the Ravens so far this season, outscoring them 19-3. They also won two of those by shutouts.

In the two games this weekend, the Stingers scored nine goals. Photo by Hannah Ewen.

Stingers head coach Julie Chu was pleased with how her team competed against the Ravens, a team she calls a hard-working opponent. Chu wanted to see consistency from her team throughout the game.

“From start to finish, you could see it,” Chu said. “They scored a late goal. They don’t give up. And so for us, I think it’s trying to have to same intensity, focus, and urgency toward the way that we play.”

The Stingers took the lead early in the first period when forward Lidia Fillion scored her third goal of the season. “It was really great to see that our girls came out on fire in that first period,” Chu said. “They put us in a good place, and just kept getting better and better.”

Gagnon then added two goals in less than six minutes to give the Stingers a decisive 3-1 lead in the first. The forward gave credit to her teammates for her performance.

“I’m just at the right place at the right time,” Gagnon said. “When we need to put it [the puck] in the net, I do so.”

With two goals against the Ravens, Gagnon now has five goals and two assists in her last four games. Chu described her forward as a warrior.

“[Gagnon] is not afraid to go to the net,” Chu said. “She competes in every moment, and I think that’s a big reason why she’s been successful over her career. She has that great determination. She’s willing to go through a knee, go through a wall to get a play done.”

Gagnon said the team had good zone exits against the Ravens, which created good offensive opportunities and helped the whole team produce in the game.

The first of Gagnon’s two goals was on the power play, and Rosalie Begin-Cyr scored a second power-play goal for the Stingers in the second period. Chu said the team really worked on reading plays and executing them at the right time.

“Today, I thought we did a really good job of moving the puck quickly, tape to tape,” Chu said. “Then, when we had opportunities to shoot and find shooting lanes, we were able to execute on those. That was really big.”

The Stingers finished the game with 39 shots, while the Ravens finished with 12. Goaltender Katherine Purchase registered her third victory of the season.

With an 8-4-3 record, the Stingers are still in third place, but sit three points behind first place, with five games remaining in the regular season. They play their next game on Feb. 1 in Ottawa against the Ravens.

Main photo by Hannah Ewen.

Sophie Gagnon scores winner ahead of playoff clash versus Gee-Gees

The Concordia Stingers women’s hockey team beat the Ottawa Gee-Gees 3-2 on Feb. 18. Forward Sophie Gagnon scored the double overtime winning goal to close out the regular season at the Ed Meagher Arena.

The first period woes for the Stingers continued on Sunday afternoon. Ottawa’s Sara Lachance scored the opening goal just six minutes into the game, and a slow pace led to another Gee-Gees goal late in the period by Julie Levesque. The Gee-Gees finished the first period up 2-0.

“Our effort at the drop of the puck has to be a lot better,” said Stingers head coach Julie Chu. “That’s something we’ve had to work on throughout the season. It’s time for our players to step up and start faster than they have. They learned a valuable lesson today.”

As the Stingers have done multiple times this season, they picked up the pace in the second period. Forward Audrey Belzile found the net after a pass from forward Marie-Pascale Bernier to get the Stingers on the board. This was Belzile’s team-leading 11th goal of the season, and she finished the regular season with 18 points. The Stingers held the Gee-Gees to a mere four shots all period.

Concordia dominated the third period, but could only manage one goal by forward Claudia Dubois, assisted by Brigitte Laganière, halfway through the period. Once again, the Gee-Gees only managed four shots on net, while the Stingers took 18. Despite outshooting the Gee-Gees 39-18, the game headed to double overtime.

The first frame of four-on-four overtime was not enough to break the tie, so the game needed a second frame of three-on-three overtime. With plenty of room available, Gagnon used her speed to get up the ice and found an opening to seal the win for the Stingers.

Fifth-year forwards Alexandria D’Onofrio and Keriann Schofield (middle) played their final regular-season game with Concordia. Photo by Sandra Hercegova.

Following the game, six Stingers seniors were honoured as their Concordia hockey careers come to an end this season. Forwards Alexandria D’Onofrio and Keriann Schofield, defencemen Audrey-Anne Allard, Marie-Joëlle Allard and Caroll-Ann Gagné, and goalie Frédérike Berger-Lebel were among those presented with flowers and framed photos.

Concordia finished the season with a 14-4-2 record, in second place in the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ). The Stingers will play the Ottawa Gee-Gees in a best-of-three semi-final series.

Coach Chu said she does not plan to take anything for granted in the series. “This game was down to the wire, and it’s going to be a great series. It’s going to be a battle, and we have to be able to handle the pressure.”

Game one of the series will be at the Ed Meagher Arena on Feb. 22 at 7:30 p.m. Game two will be in Ottawa on Feb. 24, and game three, if necessary, will be back at Concordia on Feb. 25.

Main photo by Sandra Hercegova.