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Photo: Marta Kierkus
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Second period peppering secured win for struggling Stingers

The Gee-Gees women’s hockey team has defied expectations throughout the year and put together a successful season, recently finding themselves ranked in the nation’s Top 10. However, a matchup with the struggling Concordia Stingers on Jan. 29 may have raised some questions.

In a tough battle between teams, the Stingers came away with a 4-2 victory, handing the Gee-Gees a loss typically only suffered to the likes of Montreal and McGill.

After an early goal by Camille Pauck-Therrien to put the Gees on the board, their offence became stagnant.

The Stingers absolutely lit up the Gee-Gee net in the second period, pouring in four goals.

The Gees had fallen too far behind to stage a comeback, despite having 11 scoring opportunities in the final frame. A single goal by Laura Turcotte in the third period stopped the bleeding, but couldn’t ultimately do anything to spark the team.

Taking a loss on home ice against a team further down in the standings was surely detrimental to the team’s momentum.

“Sometimes you need a big loss to get some big wins later on,” said head coach Yanick Evola. “They outplayed us in the second. We’re always talking about consistency and we won the first, won the third, and lost the second.”

Evola expressed that he wants the team to learn from the game and use it as motivation to come back stronger in the following games.

Luckily for the Gee-Gees, their next matchup comes on Feb. 5 against a Carleton Ravens team that is struggling more than the Stingers.

The Gees have swept the season series against the Ravens 3-0 so far, and the teams will meet one more time in the season finale on Feb. 21.

On Feb. 7, the Gees will travel to Montreal to take on the second-ranked Carabins.

“We have to be ready,” said Evola. “Every team, the five top teams in our conference, every game, every period, every minute is important so we just have to learn from that.”

With only five games left in the year, the race for playoff seeding is heating up. If the Gee-Gees can have a strong close to the season they should earn themselves a run in the playoffs.

Every game from this point on will be a must win to put the Gees in the best spot possible. A trip to nationals this season is in the cards—it’s now only up to the team to play them.