Stingers Ousted in Return to Regular Season

Carabins Special Teams Put Game Away

SportsDavid S. Landsman — Published January 13, 2014 | Updated January 14, 2014 at 1:46am

After the two previous meetings with the Carabins were both lost by 2-1 margins, this game was all in favor of the blue, black and white.

It didn’t take long for the visitors to get on the scoresheet.

Just under a minute into the game Katherine Richard found a loose rebound and, with Stingers rookie goaltender Briar Bache down, it easily sailed in the back of the net.

The game was a statement for the Carabins, third-ranked in the Canadian Interuniversity Sports, by dominating the possession from the beginning.

Midway through the first period with the Stingers trying to kill off a penalty, Carabin veteran forward Ariane Barker scored her first on the afternoon with assists from Maude Gelinas and Maude Allemoz.

Barker finished the game with four goals, and Gelinas with five helpers, both aiding their team with a runaway victory.

There seemed to be a couple of bright spots for Concordia following Barker’s first, when rookie Kerianne Schofield had a couple of chances on Carabin goaltender Marie-Pier Chabot. But Chabot only needed to make 11 saves to preserve the win.

Barker scored another two straight to complete the natural hat trick just over a minute into the second and increased her team lead to 4-0; with all of her goals coming on the powerplay.

Her team had five goals on the advantage altogether Sunday afternoon.

“We definitely have to adjust things on our penalty kill,” said Stingers head coach Les Lawton.

“I think we just weren’t ready; that was probably our worst game this year.”

After Allemoz made it 5-0 after only 22 minutes, tempers started to get a little out of control on both sides, but especially on the Concordia bench.

Carabins forward Audrey Gariepy, who originally started her CIS career with the Concordia Stingers in the 2011-12 season, tallied two of her own to finish the second period with a commanding 7-0 lead.

Lawton finally replaced Bache to start the third, putting in Carolanne Lavoie-Pilon, who made three out of four saves in her relief effort.

Barker notched her fourth and final goal of the game seven minutes into the third with Stingers defender Danielle Scarlett in the box for a body checking minor.

Late in the game it appeared as if they were going to spoil Chabot’s shutout bid when defence Gabrielle Meilleur rang one off the post.

They were finally able to break the goose egg in the last minute on a powerplay.

A shot by rookie Alexandra D’Onofrio bounced up and then was swatted down by Audrey Morand.

Although the game was all but over, the Stingers seemed content just to get on the board.

“It was really a tough game out there today,” said Morand.

“I think we didn’t play a 60-minute game, and we had a long week. We can’t use that as an excuse. It looked like we were all out there with crutches.”

Lawton says some changes need to be made, and that the team needs to keep looking forward.

“We really have to put this game behind us and get ready for Thursday,” said Lawton.

“Despite our team record, our team performance has been pretty solid, and today was the first time we really faced tough adversity.”