Stingers a close second at Humes event

By John Austen

They may have outplayed their opponents but, as Stingers women's hockey coach Les Lawton will tell you, it's the final score that counts.

The Stingers, despite outshooting their foes 29-15, lost a heartbreaking 2-1 decision to the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks in the final of the Theresa Humes Women's Hockey Tournament, played last Sunday afternoon at the Ed Meagher Arena.

Numerous penalties called against both teams left the game with very little flow, and Lawton said that hurt his club.

"We're a skating team, so it was tough for us to get anything going with all the stoppages," said Lawton. "We didn't play our best game and their goalie [Cindy Eadie] made some big saves. The bottom line is that we didn't capitalize, and the final score shows that."

Candice Djukic scored the winning goal with 3:44 left to play to give the Hawks the victory in the championship game before 350 exuberant fans.

The Stingers went into the game as slight underdogs since they were ranked No. 6 in the country, while Wilfrid Laurier sits at No. 2.

Concordia's diminutive forward, Dominique Rancour, who was seemingly on the ice all afternoon, felt they still should have won the game.

"It's disappointing, because we can play better than that and we still almost won," she said. "I'm really tired right now, but I think overall the tournament will give us confidence heading into the second half of the season."

Rancour was named as the tournament's top forward, while Hawks' Eadie and Ashley Stephenson were the top goalie and defenceman respectively.

Concordia opened the scoring early in the second period when Janie Brassard scored at the 5:21 mark. The celebration was shortlived, however, as the Hawks tied it up just 22 seconds later when Fiona Aiston, one of the top female players in the country, beat Stinger netminder Cecilia Anderson.

The Regina Cougars defeated the Toronto Varsity Blues 2-1 to finish third. A 2-1 victory over the Queen's Golden Gaels gave the Ottawa Gee-Gees the consolation championship. The McGill Martlets blanked the Plattsburgh State Cardinals 1-0 to finish in seventh place.

All proceeds from the gate of the eight-team competition will be donated to the Concordia Student Union's Tsunami Relief Fund. The receipts from the three days of action totalled $4,000.

Perhaps the best game of the tournament was played a day earlier when fourth-year defender Marie-Hélène DeBlois scored the winning goal in a shootout to give the Stingers a 3-2 victory over Toronto in the semifinals.

DeBlois was the seventh Stinger shooter and only the second Concordia player to beat goaltender Stephanie Lockert. Toronto's Janine Davis and Janie Brassard of the Stingers exchanged goals early in the shootout.

The Stingers last won the tournament in 2002 with a 4-3 victory over the Cornell Big Red. They lost 4-1 to the Alberta Pandas in the championship game last January. The Pandas went on to win the gold medal at the CIS championship.

Concordia is in first place in Quebec with a 5-2-2 record.