Gees will look to do better in 2019–2020
The women’s hockey team was swept in round one of the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) playoffs at the hands of the Montreal Carabins.
The Carabins easily won both matchups by identical 4–0 scores, ending a tough but resilient season for the Gee-Gees.
A team plagued by injuries early on and struck by tragedy with the loss of teammate Melissa Kingsley, they struggled to ever find a groove this season.
The red horses finished fourth out of five in the RSEQ—barely beating out the Carleton Ravens for the last playoff spot.
Facing the second-best women’s hockey team in all of U Sports, the Gees never really stood a chance against Montreal.
In what seemed to be stacked as a big year for the U of O—coming out of a nearly perfect preseason—the team dropped their first three before winning an emotional game against Carleton the day following the passing of Kingsley from cancer.
But the Gees wouldn’t be out of the woods, losing six of their next seven, beating Concordia in a shootout at home for their lone win during that period in December.
Ending the first half last place in the conference with a mere four points and two wins, things looked grim for the Garnet and Grey coming into January and the second half of the season.
They would fare somewhat better in the second half—doubling their win totals from the first half, beating Montreal, McGill, and Carleton twice to leapfrog the Ravens and sneak into the playoffs through the backdoor.
It was also a tough year for the Gees’ offence. Mélodie Bouchard led the charge for her team with just 13 points in 19 games this season.
The McGaughey sisters also struggled to stay on the ice, with Taylor collecting four points in 13 games, while Meagan struggled mightily—scoring one goal on the season and being credited for one assist in 16 games.
One of the lone bright spots for the Gee-Gees was fourth-year goaltender Maude Levesque-Ryan, who had a .928 save percentage and a 2.48 goals against average, playing in all six Gee-Gees wins on the year and starting both playoff games.
