Tag: Stephanie Lalancette

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Stingers stumble in game one of RSEQ final

Stingers stumble
Stéphanie Lalancette said the Carabins play a physical game. Photo by Matthew Coyte.

Stéphanie Lalancette scored two points in overtime loss to Carabins

The Concordia Stingers women’s hockey team fell to the Université de Montréal Carabins 3-2 in overtime in game one of the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) final. Forwards Claudia Dubois and Stéphanie Lalancette each scored a goal for the Stingers. This loss comes after the Stingers defeated the Ottawa Gee-Gees in three games in the first round.

The Carabins and Stingers were the top two teams in the RSEQ division all season, finishing first and second respectively.

The Stingers are slow starters, and this game was no different. They started the game on their heels, almost overwhelmed by the energy of the Carabins, who were playing in front of a packed CEPSUM Arena.

“The first 10 minutes, we didn’t play well,” said head coach Julie Chu. “Montréal outplayed us. We didn’t have the intensity. It looked like we were nervous, which was not something that we expected.”

Later in the first, the Stingers had a power play, and the team had the opportunity to apply some pressure of their own after a rough start. On the first face-off in the Carabins’s zone, the Stingers won the face-off back to their defence, who mishandled the puck before sending an attempted shot off the shinpads of Laurie Mercier from the Carabins. With the puck, Mercier took off past the defence, and went on a breakaway against rookie goaltender Alice Philbert. Mercier faked the forehand shot, went to her backhand and roofed the puck over a sprawling Philbert for the short-handed tally.

The Carabins spent most of the game in the Stingers’s zone. Photo by Matthew Coyte.

The Carabins maintained pressure for the majority of the first period. It wasn’t until near the end of the first that Concordia managed to get any sort of momentum rolling.

The Stingers started the third period on the power play, and 30 seconds into the period, Dubois, who led the team in scoring during the regular season, scored to tie the game 1-1 off a rebound from a Lalancette one-timer.

The move of the night came in the third period from the Carabins’s Marie-Pier Dubé, who took a cross-ice pass, crossed the Stingers’s blueline, toe dragged around both defenders and somehow managed to poke the puck past Philbert to give Montréal a 2-1 lead.

Once again forced to play from behind, the Stingers responded five minutes later. Lalancette took a stretch pass along the right side of the ice and found herself in a one-on-one against the Carabins defender. She moved to the middle of the ice, gripped it and ripped her wrist shot over the glove of the Carabins goalie.

Even with the tying goal, Lalancette said her team didn’t do enough to generate chances.

“We didn’t keep control of the puck,” she said. “We were missing those offensive chances to attack the net.”

After three periods of play, the game was tied at two-a-piece and headed to overtime.

Every meeting between the Stingers and Carabins this season has gone to extra time. The Stingers won the first three meetings, and the Carabins won the last two regular-season games.

“In overtime against them, we know that it’s not going to be easy,” Lalancette said.

The overtime period didn’t quite go the way the Stingers had probably planned. They were barely able to leave their own zone, commiting a number of turnovers that led to quality chances, and forced them to play on the defensive. During that pressure, Carabins forward Alexandra Labelle fired the puck just over the blocker of Philbert for the win.

The result was disappointing for the Stingers, but not unsurprising according to Chu, who simply said the team didn’t play their best hockey.

“We’re [two teams] that are really well matched.” Chu said. “There’s a lot of great hockey ahead, and it’s going to come down to that little bit of extra effort that the teams are going to give.”

Lalancette said the Stingers need to use their speed for game two in the best-of-three series.

“Next game, we’re going to have to come out of the gate and attack them better,” Lalancette said. “They’re a big team; they like to play physical.”

Game two of the final will take place at the Ed Meagher Arena at Concordia’s Loyola campus on Saturday, March 3 at 3 p.m.

Main photo by Matthew Coyte.

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Setting up goals from anywhere

Even though Audrey Belzile leads the Stingers in goals, it has been Stéphanie Lalancette (pictured) feeding her passes. Photo by Alex Hutchins.

Second-year forward Stéphanie Lalancette is near the top of the league in assists

In a women’s hockey game against the Carleton Ravens on Feb. 4, Concordia Stingers forward Stéphanie Lalancette earned an assist while sitting on the bench.

Midway through the second period, Lalancette carried the puck into the offensive zone before running out of room in front of a Ravens defender. She dropped the puck to her linemate, Audrey Belzile, then headed to the bench for a line change. As Lalancette got off the ice, Belzile circled around and scored a top-shelf goal.

A point from the bench for Lalancette on a Belzile goal. That’s the type of season Lalancette is having: one filled with assists. Belzile scored four goals in that game, and Lalancette assisted on three of them.

It’s clear that Stéphanie Lalancette and Audrey Belzile also have a good relationship off the ice. Photo by Alex Hutchins.

“I think [I am] more of a passer,” Lalancette said. “I like the feeling of being able to pass and [help] my teammates score.”

Lalancette is tied for the third-most assists in the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ), with nine total. Five of those assists were on goals by Belzile, and the other four were by the other player on her line, Lidia Fillion.

Even though Lalancette is the passer on that line, she scores goals too.

“I bring a lot of energy, and I could change a game in just one shift,” Lalancette said. “I bring a lot of scoring chances in just one shift.”

Head coach Julie Chu said Lalancette is always giving her full effort, be it at practice or in games.

“If you ever come to our practice and watch Steph, even on a simple warm-up drill, the way she’s ready and explodes on that drill, you don’t see that all the time,” Chu said. “Because she has that mentality of getting better, working and making the most out of every moment, that’s why it’s translating to the games and why she’s such a dominant player for us.”

Stéphanie Lalancette scored her first two goals of the season against the McGill Martlets on Oct. 21. Photo by Kirubel Mehari.

In her rookie season last year, Lalancette scored six goals and added 10 assists. This season, she already has seven goals to go along with her nine assists in 17 games.

Belzile said she enjoys being on a line with her playmaking teammate. “I like her speed. She sees me well, and I see her well,” Belzile said. “We have good chemistry, and we just fit together.”

Although Lalancette is feeding Belzile goals with the Stingers, the pair played on rival teams in CEGEP. Lalancette played for the Limoilou Titans, and Belzile played for the St-Laurent Patriotes, two of the top teams in college hockey. “Before we were enemies, but now we’re really good friends,” Belzile said.

In the 2014-15 season, Limoilou beat St-Laurent in the final, and the year after, Limoilou eliminated St-Laurent in the semi-final en route to winning the RSEQ championship. Lalancette said that championship experience helped her bring a winning mentality to the Stingers.

She played with many current Stingers at Limoilou, including forwards Claudia Dubois and Marie-Pascale Bernier, and defencemen Claudia Fortin, Audrey-Anne Allard and Aurélie Hubert. Lalancette said playing with her CEGEP teammates at Concordia is a fun experience.

“We knew each other, so it helped us in our everyday life and on the ice too,” Lalancette said.

In her rookie season last year with the Stingers, Lalancette continued her winning streak. Despite finishing the season with a 10-9-1 record, the Stingers upset the Université de Montréal Carabins in the first round of the playoffs, and secured a spot at nationals, where they finished in fourth place.

“It was a great feeling,” Lalancette said about their trip to nationals last March in Napanee, Ont. “As a first-year, you never [expect] that.” On the subject of what the team’s goals are for this season, Lalancette asserted: “We expect to win. We want to win the playoffs of the RSEQ, and go to the nationals and really have a winning mentality.”

Stéphanie Lalancette battles a McGill Martlet during a game on Feb. 10. Photo by Alex Hutchins.

Even though Lalancette has up to three more seasons left with the Stingers after this one, she doesn’t stop thinking about her future in professional hockey. She said her goal is to play for Les Canadiennes de Montréal, but needs to focus on school in order to get a job outside of hockey. She’s currently studying leisure sciences.

Lalancette said she’s studying leisure sciences because that’s what she enjoys in school, and it helps her on the rink too. “I can bring a lot of stuff on the ice. I like being around people and just helping as much as I can.”

Through two seasons playing with the Stingers and studying at Concordia, Lalancette knows the challenges of being a student-athlete.

“It’s a lot of work,” she said. “You need to be on time for everything; you can’t be late; you need to prepare yourself for every week and just be sure you’re ready on the ice and you’re ready to study too.”

Main photo by Alex Hutchins.

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Stingers close in on top seed with win against McGill

Players on the Concordia Stingers women’s hockey team wore pink tape and laces for breast cancer awareness. Photo by Alex Hutchins.

Audrey Belzile scores her eighth goal in five games as Claudia Dubois collects three points

The Concordia Stingers women’s hockey team beat the McGill Martlets for a fourth time this season, winning 5-3 on Feb. 10 at the Ed Meagher Arena. The Stingers got their goals from their top players, as forwards Claudia Dubois, Audrey Belzile, Stéphanie Lalancette, Marie-Pascale Bernier and Devon Thompson each scored.

“This was a playoff atmosphere,” said head coach Julie Chu. “A game like this is an emotional one […] That was a really fun game. McGill played really well, and it was great to see our team step up, handle the pressure down the stretch and execute in big-time moments.”

The Stingers have been slow starters in games this season, and this one was no different. The Martlets opened the scoring less than four minutes into the game with a goal by Kellyane Lecours. McGill dominated much of the first period, but Belzile scored her eighth goal in the last five games to give the Stingers a tie after the first period. This was Belzile’s 10th goal and 17th point of the season, slingshotting her to the top of the league’s leaderboard in each category.

The Stingers sit a point behind the first-placed Carabins, with a game against them on Feb. 16. Photo by Alex Hutchins.

“The first period we were a little bit sluggish on our execution,” Chu said. “We were in the right spots to do the right thing, but we didn’t execute it, and it took us a while to get our first shot of the game.”

The head coach said during the first period, she told her team to calm down. “Maybe we had too much energy, so we got a little bit scattered and we were a little jittery with the puck.”

Nerves are always a big part of the Concordia-McGill rivalry. Lalancette said in rivalry games like these, they need to stick to their own gameplan. “We knew it was a big game for us and we needed the win, so we played well for that reason,” Lalancette said.

The Stingers came out firing in the second period, with Bernier scoring just three minutes in to give Concordia a 2-1 lead. After McGill tied the game four minutes later, Bernier’s relentless forechecking in the Martlet’s zone forced a turnover, and Dubois picked up the loose puck and scored on a wraparound. Dubois finished the game with a goal and two assists.

“[Dubois] has been one of our top players all year long,” Chu said. The third-year player is now tied with Belzile and rookie forward Lidia Fillion for most points on the Stingers with 17.

Even though the Stingers outshot the Martlets 13-7 in the second, McGill came out strong to start the third period. Martlets forward Jade Downie-Landry tied the game just over a minute into the final period.

Even though the game was tied for most of the third period, Lalancette said the mood on the bench was positive. “We always kept the energy high, but we were able to control it,” Lalancette said.

With just over five minutes left in the period, Fillion carried the puck toward the Martlets net. She lost the puck in the crease, but Lalancette was right there to poke it into the net, scoring the eventual game-winning goal. Thompson added an empty-net goal late in the game.

The win improves the Stingers record to 13-4-1, good enough for second place in the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ). With two games remaining, the Stingers are one point behind the Université de Montréal Carabins. The two teams play each other on Feb. 16 at Montréal. Chu said they need to prepare for the game against the Carabins like they would for any other game.

“We expect our players, every week, to come prepared and ready to work,” Chu said.

Main photo by Alex Hutchins.

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Stingers win fifth-straight game over Gee-Gees

Stingers defenceman Caroll-Ann Gagné, who scored a goal in the game, carries the puck away from her own net. Photo by Mackenzie Lad.

Stéphanie Lalancette scored twice in 5-1 victory

The Concordia Stingers women’s hockey team came to life in the second period and dominated the Ottawa Gee-Gees in their 5-1 win at the Ed Meagher Arena on Jan. 14.

The Stingers improved to a 9-3-0 record, putting themselves closer to first place in the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) standings. This win marks their fifth in a row, and they haven’t lost since Nov. 17.

Stingers forward Stéphanie Lalancette scored twice to give Concordia a lead they would never lose against the Gee-Gees. Forwards Keriann Schofield and Lidia Fillion, and defenceman Caroll-Ann Gagné scored one each in the win.

The Gee-Gees dominated the first period with an explosive offence, threatening Stingers goalie Katherine Purchase multiple times. A first period struggle is nothing new for the Stingers, as they have failed to score in the first period in five of their nine wins this season. By the end of the first period, Ottawa had outshot Concordia 10-6.
Head coach Julie Chu addressed the lack of production in the early part of the game.

The Stingers move within two points of the RSEQ lead after winning their fifth-straight game. Photo by Mackenzie Lad.

“There was no explosiveness in the first period,” Chu said. “Ottawa is a great team that starts fast, and they started on time while we didn’t. We were really lucky to come out of the period with a tie at that point. Luckily, it’s a 60-minute game.”

The Stingers scoring opened up midway through the second period after Gagné punched the puck through the legs of Ottawa’s goalie, Maude Levesque-Ryan, on a scramble in front of the net. That goal marked Gagné’s first of the season.

Late in the second period on a power play, Lalancette sniped the puck past the Ottawa goalie, knocking the water bottle off the top of the net. Her second goal of the night was another well-placed pass by forward Devon Thompson in the third period. This was Lalancette’s second two-goal game of the season.

“She has been one of our most consistent and top players over the season,” coach Chu said about Lalancette, who sits in fourth in the league for most points. “She’s healthy, she works hard and she really utilized her speed which is a huge asset to the team. And obviously she has a great shot.”

Gee-Gees defenceman Cassidy Herman scored Ottawa’s lone goal on the power play in the third period. That would be the end of the Ottawa production, despite starting off so dominant.

With the third period coming to a close, the intensity and physicality ramped up. Schofield scored her fourth goal of the season to give the Stingers a 4-1 lead and more cushion against the physical Gee-Gees. Shortly thereafter, Ottawa pulled their goalie but could not find success. Fillion scored an empty-net goal to bring her team-leading goal count to six on the season.

“We focus one game at a time, and we still expect the most every day,” Chu said. “The girls are embracing it, and they’re able to improve and get better each day. We can’t take anything for granted because this league is so strong that we’ve got to be ready to play and focused.”

The Concordia Stingers women’s hockey team will take on the Université de Montréal Carabins at the Ed Meagher Arena in a crucial battle for first place in the RSEQ standings on Jan. 19.

Main photo by Mackenzie Lad.

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