If playing this late into the season became habit for the Nipissing Lakers Womens Hockey team, those within the program and the university itself would welcome it. Not very often does a team qualify to play for a national championship in back-to-back seasons, but that’s precisely what the Lakers have done this year with their quarterfinal matchup slated for Friday night.
But after their loss last weekend to the Toronto Varsity Blues, this is a second straight year in which the Lakers are going into the U-Sports National Championship tournament without having been able to capture their own league trophy, the McCaw Cup.
After falling 2-1 to the Blues, Head Coach Darren Turcotte said, “Not too many teams get to play on after losing but we’ve put ourselves in that situation and it’s the exact same situation we were in a year ago and we’re just going to have to reset, refocus and get ready.”
Awaiting them in the quarterfinals is a tough test right out of the gate as they will be taking on the defending U-Sport champions, Concordia Stingers, who attained their status as Canada’s top women's university hockey team last season in a 4-0 defeat over the Nipissing Lakers.
It is not technically a home game as the host school is officially University of Montreal, but it might as well be with Concordia’s campus a mere 10-minute drive away from Aréna du CEPSUM where all the games will be played. Concordia are coming off a season in which they went 20-5 in the regular season and then 4-1 in the playoffs to finish as the champions in the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) conference.
Led by Emmy Fecteau’s 13 goals and 32-points over 23 regular season games, the Concordia Stingers are a team that has some power up front. Five players finished with at least 20 points while Emilie Lavoie was just behind Fecteau in the goal scoring category with 11. Outside of Fecteau and Lavoie, six other players were in double digits in assists and Rosalie Begin-Cyr, Megan Bureau-Gagnon and Caroline Moguin Joubert all had nine goals.
In net Alice Philbert, who had a 25 save shutout in last year's gold medal game against Nipissing, was outstanding once again this season for Concordia with a record of 12-4 in 19 games, allowing three or more goals against just three times all year leading to a 1.56 Goals Against Average and .932 save percentage.
However, the Nipissing Lakers have been under pressure this entire season. Getting off to a slow start at the beginning of the year and chasing Toronto in the East Division all season, they ended the year in second place and had to host a playoff game in Powassan in round one, then were the lower seeded team in the second round, winning both games in overtime against Waterloo.
“We know what to expect going into nationals in Montreal,” Turcotte said last week ahead of their game against Toronto. “We know that we’re going to have to be better than seven other teams no matter what the seedings say and no matter where we start the tournament, we are more concerned about where we finish.”
Turcotte pointed to the leadership and their experience being a big factor this weekend, and so could the play of Maria Dominico, the all-time leader in goals and points for the Lakers who is coming off another strong season in which she won a gold medal with Team Canada at the 2023 FISU games in Lake Placid in January.
“She’s had a great season and she probably expected to put up a few more numbers but we’re happy with the way she’s played, she’s been a great player for us for five years and there would be nothing better than to see her finish off her career the right way,” says Turcotte.
Dominico’s sister Mallory had herself a tremendous year, which was capped off by being named to the OUA First Team All-Stars.
She spoke about the chance to play in the nationals again for a second straight year, “We know what to expect this year and I think a lot of people last year thought we were a fluke and I think this gives us another chance to prove to ourselves that we should be here.”
The Lakers and the Stingers will play on Friday, March 17 at 7 p.m. which will be the final quarterfinal game played. Following that, consolation games take place on Saturday at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. while semifinals are set for 4:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. The tournament concludes on Sunday, with the fifth-place game starting at 11 a.m., the bronze-medal game will be played at 3 p.m. and the championship game goes at 7 p.m. All games will be broadcast live on CBC Sports digital platforms, and you can find the entire schedule here: https://www.usports.ca/en/broadcast
