News

Oles scores goals as Martlets tame Pandas to keep medal hopes alive at Nationals

Published: 9 March 2012

(PHOTO OF CHARLINE LABONTE COURTESY UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA)

BOXSCORE:

www.leaguestat.com/canadawest/womens/en/stats/game-summary.php?game_id=1051

EDMONTON - Leslie Oles of Beaconsfield, Que., sparked a three-goal outburst with a pair of third-period markers as second-seeded McGill skated to a 4-0 victory over No.5 Alberta at the CIS women's hockey championship, Friday, before 1,021 at Clare Drake Arena.

Charline Labonté of Boisbriand, Que., made 26 saves to register her fifth career shutout in 14 games at Nationals. The two-time Olympic gold medallist has now racked up 80 goose-eggs in 179 games overall for McGill.

“I didn’t even know,” Labonte said of the milestone. “That’s the goaltender’s job. You need to give your team a chance to win. I know we had to win by a high score to give ourselves a chance, now it’s out of our hands,” Labonte said. “We just wanted to have a good game, have no regrets at the end and give ourselves the best chance. It was a tight game and we exploded in the third.”

"She's a big-time goalie who makes big-time saves and that's what she did tonight," said Peter Smith, in his 12th season as head coach at McGill. "In fact, I thought she played really well (in the 1-0 loss to Calgary) too, and the the only thing I can really fault her for, is not scoring a goal against Calgary when we needed one. Otherwise, she's been outstanding for us."

Defenceman Gillian Ferrari of Thornhill, Ont., netted what proved to be the game-winner with only 23 seconds remaining in the opening period when teammate Mélodie Daoust won an offensive zone face-off and slipped the puck back to Ferrari at the point. Her screened wrist-shot eluded Pandas netminder Kaitlyn Chapman of Chauvin, Alta., through the five-hole.

McGill entered the third period needing goals and lots of them, if they had any hope of qualifying for the medal round. With goal-differential being a factor, a 1-0 victory wasn't good enough in the wake of a 1-0 loss to Calgary on Thursday.

Oles, who was named as McGill's player of the game, opened the floodgates in the final stanza. The speedy sophomore made it 2-0 at 3:54 of the third, deflecting a point-shot from defenceman Cathy Chartrand.

Less than seven minutes later, McGill's Darragh Hamilton found herself in alone on a breakaway. She lost control of the puck but trailing on the play was linemate Chelsey Saunders, a third-year kinesiology major from Ottawa, who upped the ante to 3-0 with her first of the tourney and second of the post-season.

It took only 132 more seconds before McGill struck again. Oles pounced on a loose puck along the right-side boards near the faceoff circle, skated in unmolested and rifled a wrist shot in the top corner of Chapman's shortside, which resulted in Chapman being replaced by backup 'keeper Kanesa Shwetz. It was the 45th career goal in 77 games overall for Oles, a 5-foot-2 sophomore centre.

"It was a huge relief to get the offence going in the final period," said Smith. "The thought did cross my mind about pulling the goalie in the last minute if we only had a one-goal lead.

"We didn't exactly have the start that we envisioned. We lost our top two defencemen early with (Cathy) Chartrand suffering an injury on the first shift, then Ferrari took a penalty (only 22 seconds into the game). As soon as Chartrand returned to the ice, she was called for a penalty (at 8:20). It could have been ugly but I'll give the girls credit, they never lost focus and they just kept going at it."

The four-goal margin of victory all but assures McGill of reaching the CIS medal round for the 10th straight year. The Martlets, who finished pool play at 1-1, can advance to Sunday's CIS gold medal final for the sixth consecutive year if Alberta (0-1) defeats Calgary (1-0) by less than eight goals on Saturday. Otherwise, McGill will play for bronze.

The possibility of an all-Quebec final, for the first time in tourney history, exists if the Montreal Carabins defeat UPEI on Saturday.

The Pandas need at least an eight-goal victory based on the tie-breaking format of goals for and against during round-robin games in order to advance to the final, while Calgary only needs a win to secure a berth in the championship game. A three-goal win would qualify the Pandas for the bronze-medal game.

CIS WOMEN'S HOCKEY CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENT

SCORING SUMMARY
McGill 4 at Alberta 0
(Friday, March 9, 2012 - Clare Drake Arena)

GOALS BY PERIOD
McGill 1-0-3 -- 4
Alberta 0-0-0 -- 0

1st Period-
1, McGill, Gillian Ferrari 1 (Melodie Daoust), 19:37.

Penalties-
Ferrari Mcg (roughing), 0:22;
Lavallee Ab (high sticking), 2:49;
Chartrand Mcg (hooking), 8:20;
Grandinetti Ab (tripping), 14:33.

2nd Period-
(No Scoring).

Penalties-
Oles Mcg (bodychecking), 3:02;
Grandinetti Ab (interference), 3:44;
Kedra Ab (bodychecking), 10:44;
Fouracres Mcg (cross checking), 14:19;
Ferrari Mcg (roughing), 15:05;
Hilworth Ab (roughing), 15:05.

3rd Period-
2, McGill, Leslie Oles 1 (Cathy Chartrand, Jordanna Peroff), 3:54.
3, McGill, Chelsey Saunders 1 (Kelsie Moffatt, Darragh Hamilton), 10:20.
4, McGill, Leslie Oles 2 (Jordanna Peroff), 12:32.

Penalties-
Peroff Mcg (interference), 19:26.

Shots on Goal-
McGill 9-9-10 -- 28.
Alberta 7-10-9 -- 26.

Power Play Opportunities-
McGill 0 / 4;
Alberta 0 / 5.

Penalties-
McGill 6 / 12;
Alberta 5 / 10.

Goalies-
McGill,
Charline Labonté (W, 1-1, 26 shots-26 saves; 60:00).

Alberta,
Kaitlyn Chapman (L, 0-1, 24 shots-20 saves; 52:32);
Kanesa Shwetz (ND, 4 shots-4 saves; 7:28).

Attendance: 1021

Start: 7:02 PM

Finish: 9:05 PM

Length: 2:03

Referees-Gabri Ariano-Lortie.

Linesmen-Danielle McGurry, Shauna Wing.

PLAYERS OF THE GAME:

1. MCG - 4 Leslie Oles
2. AB - 10 Nicole Pratt

CIS Women's Hockey Championship (March 8 - 11, 2012) @ University of Alberta, Edmonton

Pool A GP W OTW OTL L GF GA PTS

1. Montreal 1 1 0 0 0 6 5 3

2. Laurier 2 1 0 0 1 8 6 3

3. UPEI 1 0 0 0 1 0 3 0