By Casey Dulson (ISN)
The defending U Sports champions Concordia Stingers are back to finals after beating UBC
Thunderbirds 3-1.
The Concordia Stingers opened the score in the first frame on a powerplay goal by Emmy
Fecteau on their first extra-man opportunity. A few minutes later, the Thunderbirds scored on their first powerplay attempt as Rylind Mackinnon fired one past the Concordia Stingers
netminder Alice Philbert. It was a 1-1 tie after 20 minutes.
The second period saw the Stingers on the defensive, holding UBC to four shots. With four
minutes left, the Stingers got another powerplay goal as Rosalie Bégin-Cyr scored to give the Stingers a 2-1 lead heading into the third period. At the midway point of the third period, Concordia- had another powerplay goal as Rosalie Bégin-Cyr scored her second of the game. The Thunderbirds had few scoring chances but could not get anything past the strong Stinger defense.
Concordia Alice Philbert continued her outstanding play behind the pipes with 18 saves on 19 shots. UBC’s Elise Hugens had 20 saves on 23 shots in the defeat.
“We knew they had a really, really good power play and we wanted to be disciplined and stay out of the box. At the end of the day the penalty kill has to be a little bit better there and that was the difference today” said UBC head coach Graham Thomas.
The Stingers have seven powerplay goals in the tournament after going for three for four during the game. “I think it is about buying into the process. Caroline Ouellette runs our powerplay unit and does an incredible job but our players also trust the feedback and buying in and are able to apply it and that is a big part of it,”said Stingers head coach Julie Chu. One of things we always say about powerplays is most of the time, we actually fail more than we succeed and we have to be okay with that because when our next chance comes we are actually able to succeed and that what our group has been able to do and have been executing very well in awesome ways.
Stingers’ Rosalie Bégin-Cyr was named player of the game after notching two powerplay goals. “We practice a lot of powerplay and stick to the plan, we know what to do but also analyze a little bit of their penalty kill, so we knew that we were going to be able to shoot and get it through the defense and it worked, ‘said Bégin-Cyr.
Thomas also spoke about his team’s effort in the lost. “Our players stepped up played a good game and you got two conference champions from two of the top conference in Canada playing in the semifinal, two good teams, I thought our players were proud and battled really hard and played a solid game.
Concordia Alice Philbert continued her outstanding play behind the pipes with 18 saves on 19 shots. UBC’s Elise Hugens had 20 saves on 23 shots in the defeat. The Stingers look to defend their title against Mount Royal Cougars. “ It means a lot, anytime we can make it to national championship and get a chance to compete and play as many games as possible is special, said Chu. But for this group is really special because we actually went through a big journey this year after last year, we graduated 12-13 players although we had some great returners, we had a lot of youth in the team. inexperience and players that did not play a lot, it was really fun to see this group buy into the process where in September, things were not smooth but their daily commitment to get better allowed us to
be great in the end. “ It is so special, a lot of work, trust the process as our coaches say always. We are happy but not satisfied yet so we are going to work it for tomorrow, said Bégin-Cyr.
