(Courtesy: Liam Richards/Electric Umbrella/Huskie Athletics)

By Wray Morrison

CONCORDIA DEFEATS HOSTS

Huskies slide to consolation side after loss to Concordia

Mar 15, 2024 | 6:00 AM

The top-seeded Concordia Stingers defeated the U of S Huskies 4-0 in the second quarter-final of the 2024 GFL USPORTS women’s hockey championships, presented by Connect Energy, on Thursday night at Merlis Belsher Place.

Concordia opened the scoring on an Emmy Fecteau shot that hit a stick and fluttered over goaltender Camryn Drever’s shoulder at 8:13 of the first period. Saskatchewan hit a post and a crossbar in the first 20 minutes and outshot Concordia 11-7.

“It could have been a different game if one of those goes in”, said Huskie head coach Steve Kook. “I seriously thought if we got one, we would have got more.”

Stinger 5^th year forward, Rosalie Begin-Cyr, quieted the standing-room-only crowd early in the second period on a nice set-up from Emilie Lavoie to make it a 2-0 hockey game. Concordia coach Julie Chu was asked about some second-period changes that appeared to take chances away from the Huskies.

“One of the things in the first that they did a great job with is their breakouts”, said Chu. “They were creating a lot of speed off of those. We had to make some adjustments in the second and it allowed us to get into the O zone and play some offensive hockey. We like that.”

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Concordia outshot the Huskies 17-11 in the middle frame, but Kook didn’t believe the game slipped away until the final period. “I didn’t feel any loss of momentum until the third”, he said.

The Huskies had to start the period short-handed, then with the score 3-0 had to kill off another penalty in the final 3 and a half minutes of the game. Concordia’s leading scorer, Emilie Lussier, put the game out of reach with goals at 12:33 and 19:20 of the third.

Stinger third-year goaltender, Jordyn Verbeek, made 26 stops for the shutout. Drever turned aside 37 Concordia shots.

The Huskies will now play the St. FX X-Women in a consolation semi-final on Saturday at 10 am at Merlis Belsher Place.

Saskatchewan captain Kennedy Brown talked about getting a win to get to the consolation final on Sunday. “We don’t want to be done by any means. We didn’t want to be on the consolation side, but that’s the reality of a tournament like this. Our goal is to come out fresh on Saturday and leave it all on the ice.”

Earlier in the day, the 4^th ranked Waterloo Warriors punched their ticket to Saturday’s semi-finals with a 6-1 win over the St. FX X-Women. Waterloo struck in the first minute as 3^rd year forward, Tatum James, began a 4-point game by scoring 27 seconds into the first period. Despite several power play chances for both teams, the score remained 1-0 until the 3rd period when the Warriors broke it open.

Third-year defender Sarah Bestic kicked off a three-goal explosion with an insurance goal 7 and a half minutes into the final frame. Just 3:57 after Bestic’s goal, James scored her second of the afternoon to put Waterloo up 3-0. Then, with 3:40 remaining, and the X-Women goaltender out of the net, James put the finishing touches on a hat trick performance. Ireland McCloskey put St. FX on the board with a late power-play goal before Madison Pritchard scored for the Warriors with 1:33 remaining. Fourth-year goaltender, Mikayla Schnarr stopped 20 St. FX shots for the Waterloo win. Amaya Giraudier made 22 saves for the X-Women.

The Warriors will face Concordia at 4:00 pm on Saturday in the semi-finals at Merlis Belsher Place

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wray.morrison@pattisonmedia.com

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