Montreal 3, Concordia 2 (SO): Stingers Women’s Hockey Fall to Carabins in Shootout
A Back-and-Forth Battle for the RSEQ Lead Ends in Controversial Ruling
In Friday night’s fight for first place in the Reseau du sport étudiant du Québec standings between the visiting Université de Montréal Carabins and the Stingers, it was the home team that got off to a much needed quick start.
Stingers forward, Stephanie Lalancette opened the scoring early when she put in her sixth goal of the season, just 15 seconds into the game.
The second period began much like the first with a quick goal by Stingers forward, Sophie Gagnon, on the power play. Concordia then struggled on the power play as Carabins forward, Jessica Cormier, picked up a sloppy turnover by Concordia to score a shorthanded goal.
The third period turned into desperation time for the Carabins. Amidst all the action was a chance by Lalancette to seal the game off, but a missed shot in traffic kept the game going. Montreal would manage to tie the game with two minutes to go. Valérie St-Onge found Audrey Lavallée who scored and sent the game into overtime.
“When you’re playing a good team, there’s waves on momentum,” said Chu. “We’re going to have some time in our [defensive] zone and we’re going to have to have big saves. We try to minimize it as we can but overall the girls bounced back.”
Two overtime periods weren’t enough to settle the differences and a shootout was needed.
Both Concordia and Montreal scored their first and third goals, so it would come down to sudden death rounds. Stingers Sophie Gagnon missed her fourth shot while the Carabins Laurie Mercier scored to claim the victory. After a discussion between the officials and Chu over the final shot, the game was declared over, with Montreal winning 3-2.
“We thought that [Mercier] stopped [moving forward],” said Chu of the game-clinching attempt.
According to both U Sports and the RSEQ’s regulations for shootouts, a shooter can’t stop their forward momentum before taking a shot on net. With no instant video replay available, the discussion was brief and the game was over.
The win improves Montreal’s record to 9-2-4 and secures themselves a three-point lead over the Stingers in the RSEQ standings. Concordia goes to 9-3-1 and remains second in the standings, four points over the third place Ottawa University Gee-Gees.
The Stingers will be back in action Sunday afternoon at the Ed Meaghar Arena against the last-place Carleton Ravens.
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