Concordia capitalizes on power play opportunities to beat Gee-Gees 3–1
The University of Ottawa women’s hockey team continue to struggle on the road this season, losing a 3–1 contest to the Concordia Stingers on Feb. 4.
During this Saturday matchup in Montreal the Gees were seriously lacking in offensive firepower, getting outshot by the Stingers by a margin of 35–17.
This lopsided offense really came to pass in the first period, where the Garnet and Grey could barely get out of their own zone. The Stingers, meanwhile, continued to put pressure on goaltender Émilie Bouchard, which resulted in a pair of power play goals from Caroll-Ann Gagné and Stephanie Lalancette, respectively.
The Gees did show a brief spark of life in the second period, when Laurence Morissette snuck a deceptive wrist shot past Concordia goaltender Katherine Purchase to make it a 2–1 game.
However, Concordia fired back four minutes later with a third power play goal, courtesy of forward Marie-Pascale Bernier.
In the third period, the Stingers neutralized the Gees’ offense altogether using an aggressive forecheck. The Gees offence continued to struggle, and they were completely hemmed into their zone for the last two minutes of regulation time, resulting in a 3–1 final in favour of the Stingers.
While Gees’ head coach Yanick Evola insists that his team played great five-on-five hockey, he admits that they need to be more disciplined and work on their penalty kill.
“They scored three goals on the power play, so that should be something we need to improve on going into the playoffs,” he said. “At the end of the day … it could have gone both ways, but we need to play better to win these games against our big rivals.”
Unlike Concordia’s four-game win streak, the Gees have lost three in a row, and have been woefully inconsistent in 2017, so much so that Evola is unsure about where they will end up in the standings going into the playoffs.
“As of now we can finish second. We can finish fourth. We can finish third,” said Evola, highlighting the fact they are currently locked in a three-way tie for second place with Concordia and the Université de Montréal. “We don’t know who we’re going to be facing (in the playoffs), so the next few games are important for us.”
The last two games of the Gees’ regular season are set to take place on the road against the Université de Montréal on Feb. 10 and 17. Playoffs are tentatively scheduled to start during reading week.
