The Concordia Stingers women’s hockey team is going for gold when the best-of-three Quebec championship series with the Montréal Carabins begins this Thursday night.
Although the team has already secured a berth at the U SPORTS national championship March 15-18 at Western University in London, Ont., there’s no doubt Concordia wants to go as the Quebec champions.
To do that the No. 7-ranked Stingers have to take down the No. 4-ranked Carabins. Montréal finished first in the RSEQ conference with a 14-2-4 record. The Carabins had to go to a third-and-deciding game to eliminate the fourth-place McGill Martlets in their semifinal series.
The Stingers, who posted a 14-4-2 record for second place in the regular season, are charging into the finals after eliminating the third-place Ottawa Gee-Gees, also in three games.
In five regular season meetings versus Montréal, the Stingers won three games. All five of the contests went to overtime or a shootout.
Concordia will look to second-year forward Audrey Belzile to lead the attack. The second team all-star has three goals and an assist in the first three playoff games. She was also the Stingers’ top goal scorer in the regular season with 11 in 20 games.
Led by fifth-year captain Marie-Joëlle Allard, the Stingers defence will have to contend with a couple of serious threats in Alexandra Labelle, the RSEQ’s leading scorer in the regular season with nine goals and 14 assists for 23 points in 20 games, and Jessica Cormier who had 12 goals and 10 assists for 22 points.
The goaltending matchup will also be something to keep an eye on. Concordia’s Katherine Purchase (1.02 goals against average and a save percentage of .951) and Alice Philbert (1.00 GAA and .947 ) split the duties in the semifinals. Montreal’s Marie-Pier Chabot, a second team all-star, gave up an average of 3.23 goals a game and posted an .871 save percentage in the playoffs so far.
When:
Thursday – 7 p.m. –Concordia @ Montreal (Away)
Saturday- 3 p.m. – Montreal vs. Concordia (Home)
Sunday – 2 p.m. – Concordia @ Montreal – if necessary (Away)
Where:
Home: Concordia’s Ed Meagher Arena, 7200 Sherbrooke St. W.
Away: CEPSUM, 2100 Edouard Montpetit Blvd, Montreal
Home Webcast: https://portal.stretchinternet.com/cumo/
Road Webcast: https://www.youtube.com/user/CarabinsUdeM
