Concordia 6, Gee-Gees 2: Stingers Women’s Hockey Scores Three Late to Keep Streak Alive

Second-year Forward Daniela Gendron Collects Her First Goal in the RSEQ

SportsLouis Pringle — Published January 12, 2020

After establishing a two goal lead in the first frame, the Stingers came out flat-footed to start the second. The Gee-Gees dominance in the first half of the second allowed them to cut the Concordia lead down to one.

“We weren’t winning our battles,” said head coach Julie Chu. “They were outworking us in that first little bit.

Concordia was finally able to escape their offensive funk near the end of the second. Within 39 seconds, the Stingers piled on three consecutive goals against Ottawa’s Jennifer Walker. After having to fight to hold on to a 2-1 lead following Ottawa’s goal, Concordia headed back to the locker room with a comfortable 5-1 lead.

The home side seemed to unlock the offensive key against the Gee-Gees. Out of the Stingers six goals, five were scored on the rush.

“We pushed them hard in practice [after the break],” said Chu. “We just tried to work on a lot of the basics again. It just a little bit of everything we needed to be fresh.”

Scoring on the rush could be qualified as somewhat uncharacteristic of the Stingers offence as they usually like to set up their play below the opponents’ goal line before finding the back of the net.

While the Stingers mostly capitalized on the rush, their forwards constantly applied pressure below Ottawa’s goal line setting the pace of the play for most of the game.

Their hard work on the forecheck finally paid off as Bieke Van Nes was able to take the puck away from a Gee-Gees defender setting up captain Claudia Dubois in the slot.

“We were all over them,” said Dubois. “We managed to force a lot of errors from their defence and eventually found the back of the net.”

Concordia’s offensive explosion at the end second was the backbreaker, but Dubois’ tally helped put the signature on the victory for the Stingers.

Daniela Gendron’s goal near the end of the first period was her first ever in the Réseau du Sport Étudiant du Québec.

“It was pretty good actually,” said Gendron. “I was kinda surprised it went in honestly. I was also on the ice when it when in.”

Veteran netminder Alice Philbert was the starting goaltender for the home side stopping 29 shots to collect her ninth win on the season. Chu had not yet decided who would be the starting goalie for the second game of the weekend.

Concordia will look to increase its lead atop both the RSEQ standings and the national rankings as they host the Université de Montréal Carabins at 3 p.m. on Sunday at Ed Meagher arena.