Stingers down resilient Warriors 3-1 in U Sports semifinal

Concordia advances to third straight U Sports title game

Zoe Thibault (#7) scored the Stingers first goal on Saturday.

For a third straight year, the Concordia University Stingers will play for a U Sports women’s hockey title.

On Saturday at Merlis Belsher Place, the Stingers, who are the Reseau du Sport Etudiant du Quebec champions, outlasted a resilient University of Waterloo Warriors squad 3-1 in the first of two semifinals at the U Sports Women’s Hockey Championship tournament. The Warriors, who are the OUA champions, road a 37 save performance from netminder Mikayla Schnarr to stay in the game.

The Warriors were down 2-1 and went on the power play with 2:39 remaining in the third when Stingers defender Camille Richard was penalized for body checking. With 1:20 remaining in the third, Stingers third-year right-winger Jessymaude Drapeau took the puck from a pair of Warriors players in the centre ice zone and jetted down the right wing into the Waterloo zone.

Drapeau cut across the front of the Warriors net, put on a deke and tucked home a short-handed goal that sealed the 3-1 victory for the Stingers in a contest played before 647 spectators.

With the win, the Stingers advance to the gold medal final to face the sixth seeded University of Toronto Varsity Blues on Sunday at 6 p.m. at Merlis. The Stingers are making their third straight appearance in the U Sports championship game. The Stingers captured the U Sports title in 2022 downing the Nipissing University Lakers 4-0 in the event’s final, when the tournament was held in Charlottetown, P.E.I.

The Stingers faithful cheers on their team on Saturday.

Last year, the Stingers fell 4-3 in overtime in the U Sports title game to the Mount Royal University Cougars, when the tournament was held in Montreal.

With Saturday’s setback to the Stingers, the Warriors will play in tournament’s bronze medal game against the seventh seeded University de Montreal Carabins set for 2 p.m. at Merlis.

The Stingers came storming out of the gate in Saturday’s semifinal jumping out to a 2-0 lead in the first period while holding a 12-6 edge in shots on goal. Third-year centre Zoe Thibault and second-year left-winger Courtney Rice netted singles for the Stingers in the opening frame.

Concordia pressed to get further ahead on the scoreboard in the second holding a 14-6 edge in shots on goal, but they were held at bay by the heroics of Schnarr.

Working on a power play to start the third, the Warriors came up with a big traction moment. Holding the puck at the right side boards, Warriors fourth-year centre Leah Herrfort passed the puck across the front of the Stingers net backdoor to skilled third-year left-winger Tatum James. James tucked home her fourth goal of the tournament to cut the Stingers lead to 2-1.

The Stingers celebrate their win on Saturday.

James’ goal energized the Warriors, but the Stingers were able to stay composed and protect their lead. That set the stage for Drapeau to ice the victory for Concordia with her short-handed tally.

Jordyn Verbeek stopped 19 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Stingers.

Going into Sunday’s championship final, the Stingers will be trying to win their fourth U Sports title in team history having won the U Sports women’s hockey crown the first two times it was contested in 1998 and 1999.

The Warriors were trying to make the U Sports title game for the first time in team history.

Varsity Blues claim Cinderella battle with Carabins, other notes

Erica Fryer (#30) makes a save in goal for the Varsity Blues.

The glass slippers proved to be a better fit for the University of Toronto Varsity Blues.

In the second semifinal of the U Sports Women’s Hockey Championship tournament played on Saturday night at Merlis Belsher Place played before 817 spectators, it was a battle of Cinderella teams between the sixth seeded Blues and the seventh seeded University de Montreal Carabins. Neither team wanted to see the clock strike midnight in their respective quests to win a national title.

The two squads went to overtime locked in a 1-1 tie, and the 1-1 tie remained after the two squads played through a 10-minute overtime period of four skaters versus four skaters hockey. In the sixth round of the tiebreaking shootout, Varsity Blues first-year right-winger Ashley Delahey tucked home a shot past Carabins fifth-year netminder Aube Racine.

Third-year right-winger Amelie Poire-Lehoux came up net to shoot for the Carabins, and she was turned away by Varsity Blues netminder Erica Fryer. That stop by Fryer allowed the Varsity Blues to take the tiebreaking session 1-0 and the game 2-1.

With the win, the Varsity Blues advance to play in Sunday’s U Sports championship game against the top seeded Concordia University Stingers set for 6 p.m. on Sunday at Merlis.

The Carabins will take part in Sunday’s bronze medal game against the fourth seeded University of Waterloo Warriors at 2 p.m. at Merlis.

Ashley Delahey scored the tiebreaking shootout winner.

For the Varsity Blues, they will be playing in the U Sports title game on Sunday for the first time since 2003. In the 2003 U Sports championship tournament played in Regina, the Varsity Blues fell 5-4 in overtime to the University of Alberta Pandas.

The Varsity Blues lone U Sports title win came in the 2001 U Sports championship tournament held in Calgary, when they downed the University of Regina Cougars 4-3. The Varsity Blues went up 3-0 in that contest, but the Cougars rallied to tie the score at 3-3 in the third. Later in the third, the Varsity Blues netted the winning goal.

In Saturday’s clash between the Varsity Blues and Carabins, third-year defender Kalie Chan gave the U of T side a 1-0 lead firing home a shot from just above the top of the left faceoff circle at the 9:55 mark of the opening period. Delahey picked up the lone assist on Chan’s tally.

It appeared for the longest time Chan’s lone tally would stand up as the only goal of the contest.

At the 5:01 mark of the third, the Carabins found the equalizer that forced a 1-1 tie score. Carabins fifth-year centre and captain Jessika Boulanger had the puck on the right faceoff dot in the Varsity Blues zone.

She passed the puck across the face of the goal for a backdoor setup to first-year left-winger Juliette Rolland at the left side of the net. Rolland made no mistake knocking home the equalizer. Defender Jade Picard picked up a second assist on Rolland’s goal.

The Varsity Blues start to celebrate a berth in the U Sports title game.

That set the stage for the game to go to overtime and a tiebreaking shootout, where Delahey scored the only goal in the tiebreaking session in the sixth round.

Fryer stopped 25 shots over 70 minutes and all six shooters she faced in the shootout to pick up the win in goal for the Varsity Blues. Racine turned away 23 shots over 70 minutes and five out of six shooters in the shootout.

The Varsity Blues are appearing in the U Sports title game for the fourth time in team history.

The Carabins last appeared in the U Sport championship contest in 2016 blanking the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds 8-0, when the national championship tournament was held in Calgary. The Carabins have appeared in four U Sports championship games winning twice.

• The host University of Saskatchewan Huskies downed the Saint Xavier X-Women in the first consolation semifinal on Saturday 3-1 at the U Sports Women’s Hockey Championship tournament at Merlis. Defender Brooklyn Stevely had a goal and an assist for the Huskies. Netminder Camryn Drever made 37 saves to pick up the win in goal for U of S.
• The University of British Columbia Thunderbirds blanked the University of New Brunswick Red 4-0 in the second consolation semifinal on Saturday 4-0 at the U Sports Women’s Hockey Championship tournament at Merlis. Chanreet Bassi scored twice for the Thunderbirds, while Joelle Fiala and Sierra LaPlante netted singles.
• The consolation final between the Huskies and Thunderbirds at the U Sports Women’s Hockey Championship tournament is set for 10 a.m. Sunday at Merlis.
• Stingers captain Emmy Fecteau might be the best two-way player at the U Sports Women’s Hockey Championship tournament going on at Merlis. Fecteau has one goal in the Stingers two wins, and she is able to play in all situations for her squad.
• Stevely returned to the Huskies for the U Sports Women’s Hockey Championship tournament after she missed the entire 2023-24 campaign to that point battling and beating ovarian cancer. A trio of Saskatoon media outlets did great work on Stevely’s story. Darren Zary’s piece in the Saskatoon StarPhoenix on Stevely can be found by clicking right here. A story by Brooke Kruger and Scott Roblin of Global News Saskatoon on Stevely can be found by clicking right here. Shane Clausing’s story for 650 CKOM on Stevely can be found by clicking right here.
• Sunday’s U Sports title game features two teams in the Concordia University Stingers and the University of Toronto Blues that appeared in the U Sports championship contest held back in 1998. In that game, the Stingers, who were the host squad, claimed a 4-1 victory.

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