Both teams lose in three games to end their seasons
The Gee-Gees Men’s and Women’s Hockey teams ended their season on Sunday, Feb. 25 with series losses to two Montreal-based universities, McGill and Concordia. The two series were best-of-three and were pushed to a limit of three games, with Ottawa ultimately falling in the decisive third game.
After blanking the Gees 5-0 on Feb. 22, the Concordia Stingers Women’s team lost the second game of the series 2-0, but got back to their winning ways on Feb. 25 with a 2-1 victory at Ed Meagher Arena. After a scoreless first period, the Stingers caught the Gee-Gees with a fresh and quick start to the second frame, scoring two goals, the first from Marie-Joelle Allard on the power-play nine minutes in, and then from Lidia Fillion seven minutes later.
Ottawa’s Taylor McGaughey tally early in the first was the only one Stingers’ goaltender Alice Philbert let through in the 19 shots she faced. Philbert stood tall in net all game long, particularly in the dying moments of the third, when the Gees were urging to get the equalizer on a 6-on-4 power-play. At the other end, Ottawa’s goalie Maude-Lévesque-Ryan also had a strong performance as she turned aside 28 of the 30 shots she faced, but the second goal of the game at the 16-minute mark of the second, a point shot by Caroll-Ann Gagne whose rebound was backhanded in by Fillion, proved to be the difference-maker and punched Concordia’s ticket to the 2018 Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) championship final.
In the other semifinal on Feb. 25, the Montreal Carabins scored in double-overtime to defeat McGill 4-3 and win the series 2-1. They will be Concordia’s opponent in the RSEQ championship series.
On the Men’s side, the McGill Redmen, who had lost the first game 3-2 to the hands of the Gee-Gees team, rebounded to take the next two—4-1 in game two and 6-3 Sunday night in game three at McConnell Arena. If Ottawa had scored the opening goal in each of the first two games, McGill had other plans in game three, as Maximilian Daigle opened the scoring five minutes after the start of the first. They never looked back from that point, as they kept on scoring and fought to the last minute to wrap up the series two games to one and set up an all-Québécois East Finals, as the Concordia Stingers defeated the Queen’s Golden Gaels 3-2 in overtime, earlier in the day.
Mathieu Newcomb, Kevin Domingue, and Connor Sills were the goalscorers for the visiting Gee-Gees in the team’s final game of the 2017-18 calendar. Moreover, Sills’ goal came with 25 seconds to play to reduce the home team’s lead to 5-3 at the time and maybe spark some hope on their side to get two more quick goals, but the Redmen’s Jan Kaminsky added an empty-netter in a matter of 10 seconds later to prevent any miracle from happening.
