February 16, 2010 Sports

No candy on Valentine’s Day

Women’s hockey team loses last home game of season

by Alex Di Pietro

A pair of Martlets close in on Stinger defenceman Alynn Doiron. PHOTO ESTHER BERNARD

Concordia 0
McGill 3

In their last home game of the season, Concordia’s women’s hockey team kept the score low but couldn’t stop the McGill Martlets from winning 3-0 on Valentine’s Day.

“We played [the Martlets] tough, which is something that we haven’t necessarily done on a consistent basis this year,” said Stingers coach Les Lawton. “We had a chance on the power play near the end, but unfortunately, we couldn’t capitalize on any of our opportunities.”
Sunday marked the last time that centres Mary-Jane O’Shea and Emilie Luck would suit up for the Stingers at Ed Meagher Arena. Both players are in their fifth year with the team and will not be coming back next season.

“It feels really weird that we won’t be playing here again, after almost five years with the team,” said O’Shea, who is the only member on the Stingers’ roster that scored in their last regular season win against McGill at home, which occurred back in November of 2005.
“We saluted them today,” said Lawton of O’Shea and Luck. “If they leave here with solid friendships and a lifetime full of memories, then I think we’ve done part of our job.”

Concordia netminder Audrey Doyon-Lessard saved 37 of the 40 shots that the Martlets took on the day. One particularly impressive save came at the expense of McGill’s Alexandra Wells. Wells redirected a point-shot headed for the top right corner roughly seven minutes into the first period, only to be stopped by the arms of the sprawling goaltender.

“[Doyon-Lessard] kept Concordia in the game,” said McGill coach Amey Doyle. “[However,] I was happy that our team didn’t get frustrated and worked hard to stick with the game plan.”
Fresh off a hat-trick performance against Ottawa on Saturday, McGill forward Ann-Sophie Bettez, the league’s top scorer, netted two goals in the opening period against Concordia. However, there was question of a high stick on Bettez’s first goal, as she found space in the slot and batted the puck past Doyon-Lessard with 7:31 to play.

Bettez doubled her team’s lead just over three minutes later, as she made her way down the left side, put the puck through Stinger Emilie Bocchia's legs and went across Doyon-Lessard to sneak the puck into the bottom right corner.

McGill’s Vanessa Davidson nearly made it 3-0 on a breakaway early in the second period, but Concordia’s Meghan George dove to steal the puck from the Martlets’ point leader.

“I saw that it was [Davidson] and I was really excited, because I knew I had her,” said George.

Stinger Alexandra D’Ambrosio rammed right into the open door at the McGill bench six minutes into the third period and was helped off the ice after barely moving for almost three minutes.

“She seems to have a bit of a concussion and has a huge scrape on the upper part of her shoulder,” said Lawton. “ It was a scary situation because she initially had a problem with her vision.”

Martlet Jordanna Peroff capped the scoring at 3-0 with 46 seconds remaining in the game.
Already eliminated from playoff contention, the Stingers will finish their season as they visit Carleton on Saturday and McGill on Sunday.

“This is a team with a lot of character,” said Lawton. “We haven’t had a lot of success on the ice this season, but I’m really proud that we’ve got that young base of leadership that can take some kids under their wing next year and hopefully have a little more success.”