Stingers 4, Carabins 3: Concordia ends the regular season in style
The Stingers sent their graduating seniors to the playoffs on a high note
The Concordia University women’s hockey team picked up an emotional Senior Night win over the Université de Montréal on Saturday, Feb. 20, beating the Carabins 4-3 to close out the regular season.
Stingers captain Jessymaude Drapeau lamented her final game, but also praised the squad for its title-calibre pedigree.
“I feel really lucky to have the chance to play with them,” Drapeau said. “And we have great chemistry, and we've built that all season, and we're ready for playoffs.”
Six seniors—forwards Drapeau, Zoé Thibault, Emilie Lavoie, Lexi Bedier and Ekaterina Pelowich, along with goaltender Jordyn Verbeek—played their final regular-season game on Saturday night. Poetically, these seniors stepped up in the biggest moments throughout the game.
The Carabins shot out of a cannon to start the game, taking the early edge in shots on goal. Their hard work was rewarded when Thibault drew a penalty for slashing, and forward Juliette Rolland capitalized on the power play with a back-post dart just 18 seconds later.
Head coach Julie Chu commented on the Stingers’ tendency to start games slowly.
“Today was really indicative of past games as well,” Chu said. “The first period we started flat, and then we were making a lot of unforced errors. And Montreal came out hard, so they had good structure against us.”
The Stingers started the second period with clutch play from one of their younger players, third-year forward Émilie Lussier. Lussier scored her 99th and 100th career points with two quickfire goals in the first five minutes of the period, with Thibault assisting on both to make up for her early error.
UdeM fought back, though, and equalized when forward Janelle Mentor poked home a drop pass to beat Verbeek at the front post. Two quick penalties on Stingers forward Courtney Rice and defender Béatrice Caron gave the Carabins a 5-on-3 and a chance to swing momentum their way.
But off a faceoff in the Stingers’ zone, Verbeek made the save of the season.
Pulled out of position in the crease, she seemed helpless to stop Rolland’s shot directly in front of the wide-open net. But Verbeek threw her stick across the goalmouth to stun the Carabins and keep the game at 2-2.
Spurred by their goalie’s heroics, Lussier and Thibault linked up to feed Drapeau’s goal to give the Stingers the lead 3-2.
Then Pelowich got in on the action, assisting the insurance goal on Rice’s silky-smooth backhand for 4-2. UdeM pulled one goal back, but Concordia held onto the lead and the game.
Following the game, the Stingers called their graduating players to celebrate with their teammates, coaches and alumni. Verbeek, who was named player of the game, reflected on her incredible career.
“They’re years that I'll cherish for the rest of my life,” Verbeek said. “I'm sad that this is coming to an end.”
Concordia opens the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec playoffs with a best-of-three semifinal series against fourth-seeded McGill University. Game 1 is set for Thursday, Feb. 26, at 7:30 p.m.
