by John Austen

Heartbreaker final for women’s hockey squad

The Concordia Stingers women’s hockey team made the final of the 35th annual Theresa Humes Women’s Hockey Tournament, but fell short losing 5-4 to the Quebec Under-18 squad. The game was played before more than 500 boisterous fans at the Ed Meagher Arena.

The see-saw battle had Quebec out in front 5-3 with a minute left when Concordia coach Les Lawton pulled goalie Jessica Anderson for an extra attacker. The Stingers pulled to within one when Anouk Grignon l’Anglais scored with 24 seconds left but, alas, it was too little too late.

Grignon l’Anglais collected two goals and an assist for Concordia. Catherine De Abreu and M.C. Allard were the other goal scorers.

The Under-18 squad will represent Quebec at the Canada Winter Games in Bathurst, N.B., in March. The Cornell Big Red finished the tournament in third place. They beat the Middlebury Panthers 3-2 in an exciting contest that was decided by a shootout. It took six shooters on each side to break the lock.

The No. 3-ranked Toronto Varsity Blues won the consolation final, defeating the CEGEP Limoilou Titans 1-0. In the seventh-place game, the UQTR Patriotes defeated the No. 10-ranked Ottawa Gee-Gees 2-0.

The tournament MVPs were: forward Sarah Vaillancourt, Quebec U18; defender Sue Kaye, Concordia; and goaltender Marie-Andrée Joncas, UQTR.

Men’s team splits
The men’s hockey team ran into a hot goaltender as they lost their first league game since arriving back from Germany, a 3-2 decision to RMC of Kingston, Ont. (see photo). The Stingers outshot their opponents 42-21 in the game played last Friday.

After shaking off the rust the Stingers rebounded with an impressive 7-4 win over Queen’s last Saturday at the Ed Meagher Arena. Luc Messier and Mathieu Lendick scored twice for the winners, while Patrice Roy, Chris Page and Derek Legault added singles.

The Stingers are in last place in the four-team division and need to climb as high as third to make the playoffs.

“Eight of our last 10 games are against teams in our division,” said coach Kevin Figsby. “This is the toughest divisision in Canadian university hockey. There are no weak teams.”

Wrestlers strong
Concordia wrestlers had something to brag about at the Queen’s Invitational Tournament held last week in Kingston, Ont. Martine Dugrenier took first place honours in the 70-kilogram class, while Jason Chen was tops at 72 kg. Tyler Margentis and Tony Ronci finished second in the 72 and 68 kg. classes respectively.

Male hoopsters win
The Concordia men’s basketball team finally broke the ice by winning its first game of the season, a narrow 68-67 win over Bishop’s in Lennoxville. Meanwhile the ladies weren’t so lucky, losing 71-53 to the Lady Gaiters. The men have a 1-3 record, while the women are 2-2.