Exhibition Woes

Atlantic Conference Huskies End Road Trip with Win

SportsLes HonyWill — Published November 23, 2010

Lisa Jordan won bragging rights over her old coach Sunday, as her Saint Mary’s Huskies beat the Concordia Stingers women’s hockey team 6-4 at Ed Meagher Arena.
“I played for Les [Lawton] and it’s always lots of fun to play his team,” said Jordan, the Huskies’ current head coach, who played for the Stingers in 1996. For her, the exhibition game was far from being meaningless.

“I came here, I have so many good memories and so I always look forward to bringing my team back here and having the same experience in this rink. Getting the ‘W’ over him [Lawton], there’s always a sweeter taste when that happens,” she said.

“I have a lot of respect for him as a coach, as an individual. He treated me very well while I was here. I had a fantastic experience and I consider him a lifelong friend. I always look forward to our games against Concordia, especially; it’s a little extra special for me.”

On the other side of the outcome was Stingers centre Moira Frier, who comes from Broad Cove, N.S., and who grew up playing against many of the Huskies players.

“I don’t like losing to a Nova Scotia team,” Frier said. “I really wanted to prove to Nova Scotia what kind of league we play in and where we are, [to] show them it was worth me leaving Nova Scotia to come here. Every game means a lot, I hate losing.”

After a scoreless first period, the Huskies opened the scoring when defender Carla Little capitalized on a Stingers turnover that led to a partial breakaway and goal on netminder Stephanie Peck.

Huskies centre and captain Kyla Thurston increased the Saint Mary’s lead when she beat Peck with a backhander after a couple of moves on a rush. The goal was the start of an offensive outburst for both teams, as four goals were scored within the span of 1:23.

Concordia responded to Thurston’s goal within 11 seconds, when Alexandra D’Ambrosio found a loose puck in the crease and put it past Huskies goalie Jillian MacIsaac to cut the Saint Mary’s lead to one. A mere 49 seconds later Stinger Holli Monahan scored on a breakaway to even the score at 2-2.

“I think we ended up getting more bounces than them. In a 6-4 game, the puck is bouncing friendly for everybody,” Jordan said. “We were always able to
answer back. When they pulled near we’d get the next one.”

Joanie Dubois replenished the Huskies’ lead 34 seconds later by tapping a rebound past Peck.

“We put ourselves back in the game and every time we put ourselves back, they seemed to score the next shift,” said Lawton. “We’ll have to work on the mental part. I think we have the skill level to do very well but we didn’t look like we wanted to play today.”

Concordia tied up the game again when Danielle Scarlett scored on a rebound off of a failed wraparound attempt. However, the Huskies went ahead 33 seconds later when forward Sarah Maynard one-timed a shot past a helpless Peck, who Lawton felt could have used more help from her team.

“I thought [Peck] played well in the first period and didn’t get much support at our end of the ice,” Lawton said. “We didn’t play well defensively, we looked like we wanted to score goals from our end of the ice rather than defend at our end of the ice and it ended up costing us. We were a little too irresponsible.”

Jenna Currie notched the winning goal off of a rush for the Huskies at the beginning of the third period. Keely Covo for Concordia and Chelsea Osbaldeston for Saint Mary’s exchanged goals to round out the scoring.

“We shouldn’t take the wins we get for granted,” said Stingers forward Alyssa Sherrard. “Even though it’s an exhibition, it still means something.”

For Little, who was given a gold helmet as the player of the game, the win made the drive home a bit sweeter.

“It was good, especially to end our road trip. It helps the 14-hour drive home,” she said. “I’m excited to go home but it’ll be hard getting up in the morning for school.”

This article originally appeared in Volume 31, Issue 15, published November 23, 2010.