Stingers 5, Carabins 3: Concordia’s drive overwhelms UdeM
The Stingers beat the Carabins in the first game of the RSEQ finals
The Concordia University women's hockey team beat the Université de Montréal Carabins 5-3 in a tense first game of the best-of-three RSEQ final series on Thursday, March 5. Both teams will advance to the national championship in Waterloo, Ontario.
“It’s the first step in what hopefully ends up being a great victory,” forward Alexis Bedier said. “Hockey’s a game of ounces, and sometimes momentum goes their way, and it’s up to us to withstand it and come back and keep pushing away until the momentum shifts for us.”
The game started off rocky for the Stingers, with the Carabins dominating the first few minutes. However, Concordia rookie Juliette Leroux shook things up two minutes into the first period with a top-shelf shot to make it 1-0.
“We're all focusing on intensity and on the neutral zone,” defender Rachael McIntyre said. “Sometimes we get a little bit separated, but I feel like today and the last couple of games we’ve been working towards being connected throughout the game.”
Concordia maintained its lead through a rough penalty kill by goalie Jordyn Verbeek’s standout performance in net, and lasted all the way till intermission.
The Stingers started out strong in the second period with a 3-on-0 goal by another rookie, Frédérike Verpaelst, in the first minute of play. However, the Carabins came back fierce as well, and Montréal’s Meghan Lesage scored on the power play to make the score 2-1 four minutes into the second period.
“Every time we play against Montréal it’s a battle, it’s back and forth, it could go either way, and you live with a lot of different momentum swings in a game,” head coach Julie Chu said. “We’re really happy with the consistent effort that we put in and that we stuck to it.”
The Carabins stayed on a roll, with Montréal’s Lea Salem backhanding the puck over Verbeek’s pad four minutes later, tying the game.
Concordia turned up the heat after that, pushing hard against Montréal for the rest of the period, leading to a power play goal by winger Zoé Thibault with three minutes left in the period that handed the lead back to the Stingers, 3-2.
“We stuck to our system, and we came out strong, especially in the second period, so that’s how we’re gonna win the rest of the games,” defender Camille Richard said.
The momentum carried into the third period, with Stingers captain Jessymaude Drapeau deflecting forward Émilie Lussier’s shot into the net just thirty seconds into the period. The Stingers stayed dominant, with defender Émilie Lavoie scoring six minutes later to make it 5-2.
“I think Montréal’s a big team to beat," Lavoie said. "We’re not gonna beat them with skills, we’ll have to be gritty and go in corners and win our battles. We’ll get out with the win after that."
Montréal tried hard to regain control of the game, pulling its goalie for the final five minutes. Forward Audrey-Anne Veillette scored for the Carabins after a scramble in front of the net with four minutes remaining, but Concordia maintained the lead, leaving the final score at 5-3 for the Stingers.
"We’re gonna have a good day off, do the right things for our minds and our bodies and be ready to go on Saturday,” Verbeek said.
Concordia headed to CEPSUM for Game 2 and won the series 2-1 to win the provincial championship title.
