The Concordia Stingers women’s hockey team opens its best-of-three semifinal playoff series with the formidable Ottawa Gee-Gees Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at the Ed Meagher Arena in N.D.G.
It’s expected to be a crowd-pleasing matchup as Concordia’s powerful offence battles Ottawa and its defensive-oriented approach. The Gee-Gees will rely on RSEQ all-star goaltender Maude Lévesque-Ryan to lead them. While the Stingers will counter with three of the top five scorers in the conference - Claudia Dubois, Audrey Belzile and rookie Lidia Fillion.
In five regular season meetings between the teams, the Gee-Gees won three of the games. However, since the holiday break the Stingers have claimed two of three clashes including a 3-2 overtime victory last Sunday on the final day of the regular season.
Ranked No. 9 by U SPORTS, Concordia finished in second place in the RSEQ conference with an 14-4-2 record for 30 points, while Ottawa wrapped up the season in third place with a 10-7-3 record and 23 points.
The first-place Montréal Carabins face the fourth-place McGill Martlets in the conference’s other playoff series. The winners will meet in the RSEQ championship round next week.
Series Schedule:
Game 1 — Thursday, Feb. 22 – 7:30 p.m. Ottawa at Concordia
Game 2— Saturday, Feb. 24 - 2 p.m. Concordia at Ottawa
Game 3 — Sunday, Feb. 25 – 3 p.m. Ottawa at Concordia (if necessary)
Webcasts:
Thursday and Sunday - https://portal.stretchinternet.com/cumo
Saturday – OUA.tv.