“We have to have a very short memory, burn the tape, all those cliches, and get ready to move on”
With just over 12 minutes remaining in the third period of the Gee-Gees women’s hockey game against the Bishop’s University Gaiters on Jan. 12, Gees defender Reece Mepham ran an opposing player into the sideboards, sending the Gaiters to the power play. The officials were mostly letting body contact go unpenalized that evening, but Mepham’s penalty was egregious enough that they couldn’t ignore it.
Just 13 seconds into the man advantage, Bishop’s forward Justine Turcotte would send a wrist-shot over Gee-Gees goalie Lauren MacKay’s blocker hand, ending the power play and extending Bishop’s lead to 3-0.
The sequence served as a microcosm of the game for the struggling Gees, who managed to outshoot the Gaiters 33-23 in a 5-1 losing effort. Time after time, an extended offensive zone possession for the Gee-Gees would end in an odd-man rush going the other way and would ultimately result in a fast break goal. The team was outplaying the Gaiters for long stretches of time, but major defensive breakdowns would lead to high quality chances for the opposition.
The Gee’s boasted five power play opportunities of their own on the evening, in stark contrast to the lone call on the Gaiters. Even more striking were the team’s power play efficiencies. Bishop’s sits second in the league with a 29 per cent power play, which explains the way they made quick work on their lone opportunity.
The Gee-Gees would be happy if their power play was half as successful as their opponents from Friday evening. At the conclusion of the game, the team had scored just eight goals on 77 power play opportunities on the season — good for an anemic 10.4 per cent success rate.
There were some positives to take away from the matchup. In just her second game in the lineup since Nov. 3, Keara Merriman got on the scoresheet. The rookie forward from Kinnigait, Nvt sent a desperation shot almost from the blueline with defenders close behind her, which fellow rookie Molly Heighington tipped home for the Gees’ lone goal — and served as her first in U SPORTS.
Head coach Greg Bowles spoke postgame about what having Merriman back in the lineup means to the team. “She’s a scorer,” Bowles said. “She’s probably one of our most talented [players] — there’s very few in the league that can shoot the puck like her.”
Bowles also went on to talk about the mindset going forward after the tough game. “We have to take about fifteen minutes here to feel about this game, maybe feel bad for ourselves, but then we have to have a very short memory, burn the tape, all those cliches, and get ready to move on.”
The Gee-Gees returned to the ice Sunday, when they travelled to Montreal to take on the Carabins. The game was much closer, and the team held a 1-0 lead before ultimately losing 3-2, the team’s sixth loss in a row.
