Women’s Hockey Hosts 43rd Annual Theresa Humes Tournament

SportsClay Hemmerich — Published October 5, 2010

The Concordia Stingers’ women’s hockey team hosted the York University Lions, the Guelph University Gryphons and the Ottawa University Gee Gees for the commemorative exhibition tournament.

Oddly, there was no distinct winner of the tournament, but for a good reason.

“It’s just a kick-off tournament that doesn’t lead to a championship game,” said women’s hockey head coach Les Lawton. “We wanted to have a little bit of exhibition action. We wanted to make sure everyone got to play in an open-ended tournament.”

The tournament was meant to fine-tune all of the kinks that are inevitable when a new hockey team is gathered, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t competitive.

The Stingers lost 5-4 in overtime against the Guelph Gryphons. According to Lawton, the Concordia women’s hockey team would have most likely taken the game if it weren’t for all of the penalty troubles they ran into.

On Saturday, the games had to be moved to McGill University’s McConnell Arena because of problems with the ice.
“There was a leak in one of the pipes underneath the concrete on Friday morning,” said Lawton.

Concordia didn’t have much trouble adjusting to an unexpected time and place. The Stingers defeated the York University Lions for the second consecutive time by three goals in a 3-0 win.

The Stingers had also beaten the Lions 4-1 in York during preseason on Sept. 17.

In a gripping battle against the Ottawa Gee-Gees, the Stingers lost 2-1.

The tournament did not prove the superiority of any one of the teams, but more importantly, it served as good preparation for the competitive women’s ice hockey season to come.

On the first day of the tournament, York beat Ottawa 5-3, which erased the notion that Concordia had a stronghold over York since they lost to Ottawa later on.

Concordia also lost to Guelph, but York defeated the Gryphons in a shootout with a 5-4 result.

“The parity is there and it’s exciting to watch,” said Lawton. “It was a good tournament.

“I don’t know how you can compare [each tournament] year to year, but there were some really close games, and we definitely benefitted from them by seeing our strengths and weaknesses.”

Lawton is excited about the upcoming season, and is confident in his team.

“We’ve got a really good crop of first-year players and a very young team,” said Lawton. “Moira Frier is a good offensive player who’s going to make an impact on Canadian Interuniversity Hockey.

“Obviously we’ve got to fine-tune our game play because it’s the beginning of the season, but I’m confident we’re going to be competitive.”

This article originally appeared in Volume 31, Issue 08, published October 5, 2010.