The Concordia Stingers women’s hockey team has its sights set high for the 2011-12 season; the goal is to earn a berth in the CIS championship tournament.
The Quebec conference has two spots at the nationals which take place March 8-11 in Edmonton. Concordia head coach Les Lawton sees his team in the hunt for one of those spots.
“I think it is up for grabs,” said Lawton who is now in his 30th season with the Stingers. “All the teams in our conference are very close and you saw that last year with overtime games and shootouts. The teams that grow the most over the season will get there, and I am confident we can get it done.”
Concordia finished third in the Quebec conference last season, losing to the second-place Montréal Carabins in the league semifinals.
The Stingers started the 2011-12 season with a 7-5 loss to the defending CIS champion McGill Martlets, currently ranked No. 1 in the country. Lawton feels his team has more offensive abilities than in recent years and it showed with the team scoring five goals on McGill’s Charline Labonté, a member of Canada’s national team.
“We certainly have more punch than in past seasons,” Lawton said. “We have two solid lines that can put the puck in the net and our depth offensively is much stronger.”
Lawton said the addition of Véronique Laramée-Paquette, a left wing who has experience in the NCAA at Wayne State University, and centre Audrey Gariepy from Dawson College helps the team’s attack. He is also looking for big things from Alyssa Sherrard, a second-year centre; sophomore left wing Moira Frier and third-year right wing Erin Lally.
Because the Stingers are young at the goaltending position more emphasis will be placed on defence this season. Marie-Pier Remillard-Paquette, who started the opener against McGill, is in her second year but first as a starter.
Defensively, fifth-year players Alynn Doiron and Meghan George will lead the Stingers.
“With the lack of experience at goaltending, we’ll have to be a little more efficient in our own end,” Lawton said. “We’ve had really good goaltending the last few years and may have relied on that too much. This year we’ll have to clean things up.”
