Canadian Interuniversity Sport – CALGARY (CIS) – Pursuit for the title continues for MontrealCarabins after they defeated the Saint Mary’s University Huskies 3-2 in the semifinal of the CIS Women’s Hockey Championships on Saturday, March 19.

– PHOTOS (credit David Moll)

With the win, Montreal advances to Sunday’s final where they will face the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds. The final will take place at 12:30 p.m. MT on Sunday, March 20. Saint Mary’s will face Guelph in the bronze medal game Sunday, March 20 at 8:45 a.m. MT. Both games are available live on Sportsnet One.

Last year at the national tournament the Carabins lost in the semifinals to the former national champions the Western Mustangs 2-0, and ended up taking the bronze medal home after defeating the St. FX X-women. The Carabins now have a chance at taking home the title, the last time the Carabins took home the final was in 2013 and they won their first CIS gold medal. For two consecutive years Montreal will medal in Calgary, and for five at the CIS Championship. Saint Mary’s has the opportunity to make history for its program having never finished greater than fourth.

Montreal was led by Alexandra Labelle, who scored the opening goal for the Carabins and the teams game winner. The Huskies struggled to change the momentum after Montreal’s first two goals but dominated the shot clock in the second and third period, holding Montreal to just four shots combined for the last two periods.

“I told the girls to keep their cool, we knew it was going to be difficult,” explained Montreal’s head coach Isabelle Leclaire. “When they scored their first goal the momentum completely shifted, but we knew we had faced so many different situations throughout the season and we believed we could fight to the end and that’s what we did today.”

The Huskies cut into the Carabins lead midway through the second period when Carly Gray’s slap shot from the point beat Marie-Pier Chabot high glove side. With the shift in momentum, Saint Mary’s used it to its advantage heading into the third period. With under five minutes remaining in the third period the Huskies continuous pressure in Montreal’s end paid off, Laura Polak fired a low wrist shot past Chabot. Saint Mary’s couldn’t find the equalizer in the last few minutes of the game.

Chabot stopped 27 of 29 shots fired her way, while Rebecca Clark stopped 10 of 13.
“Unfortunately we put ourselves behind the eight ball, we’ve never made it easy on ourselves,” said Saint Mary’s head coach Chris Larade. “Against a team like that it’s hard to get back. We proved a lot to ourselves and proved a lot to a lot of people, I can’t be any prouder of our girls. I can’t ask for more. The question now is how fast can regroup because we have an important game tomorrow.”

Breanna Lanceleve received the player of the game for the Huskies, while Carabins forward Ariane Barker was awarded the player of the game for her team.

SCORING SUMMARY

FIRST PERIOD
1.MTL Alexandra Labelle (1) (Jessica Cormier, Cloe Barrette), 10:50
2.MTL Ariane Barker (3) (Catherine Dubois), 18:09

  PENALTIES:
Douglas (SMU) holding, 19:07;
Harrietha (SMU) hooking, 19:27.

SECOND PERIOD
3.MTL Alexandra Labelle (2) (Maude Laramee, Ariane Barker), 0:57
1.SMU Carly Gray (1) (Hayley Hallihan, Breanna Lanceleve), 1:49

  PENALTIES:
Delorme (MTL) tripping, 2:34;
Worndl (SMU) slashing, 14:47;
Pilon-Robert (MTL) too many men, 18:25.

  THIRD PERIOD
2.SMU Laura Polak (1) (Sarah Douglas), 14:39

PENALTIES:
Hallihan (SMU) bodychecking, 6:19;
Baudrit (MTL) interference, 10:01.

  GOALS (by period)
MTL 2-1-0: 3
SMU 0-1-1: 2

  SHOTS ON GOAL (by period)
MTL 9-3-1: 13
SMU 4-12-13: 29

  POWER PLAY:
MTL 0-4
SMU 0-3

  GOALTENDERS
MTL – Marie-Pier Chabot(W, 2-0, 29 shots, 27 saves, 2 GA, 60:00)
SMU – Rebecca Clark(L, 1-1, 13 shots, 11 saves, 3 GA, 58:58)

PLAYERS OF THE GAME:
MTL: Ariane Barker
SMU: Breanna Lanceleve

  ATTENDANCE: 281
REFEREE: Meghan Mallette
LINESMEN: Kaylah Kreiger, Krista Funke
START: 5:55
END:8:13
LENGTH: 2:18

SCHEDULE & RESULTS (all times MOUNTAIN TIME)

  Thursday,March 17
11:00 Quarter-final 1: Guelph 3, St. Thomas 0
15:00 Quarter-final 2: UBC 4, McGill 2

  Friday, March 18
11:00 Consolation 1: St. Thomas 2, McGill 1
15:00 Quarter-final 3: Saint Mary’s 1 Western 0
19:00 Quarter-final 4: Calgary 0, Montreal  4

  Saturday, March 19
10:00 Consolation 2: Western 1, Calgary 3
14:00 Semifinal 1: Guelph 1, UBC 2
17:30 Semifinal 2: Saint Mary’s 2, Montreal 3

  Sunday, March 20
8:45 Bronze No. 1 Guelph vs. No.3 Saint Mary’s (www.CIS-SIC.tv)
9:00 5th-place game: No. 7 Calgary vs No. 8 St. Thomas (www.CIS-SIC.tv) (at Joan Snyder Arena)
12:30 Final No. 4 UBC vs. No. 2 Montreal (Sportsnet 360 & TVA Sports 2 / www.CIS-SIC.tv) *

Webcast of the semifinals &final are on pay-per-view basis.

About Canadian Interuniversity Sport

  Canadian Interuniversity Sport is the national governing body of university sport in Canada. Every year, over 12,000 student-athletes and 700 coaches from 56 universities and four regional associations vie for 21 national championships in 12 different sports. CIS also provides high performance international opportunities for Canadian student-athletes at Winter and Summer Universiades, as well as numerous world university championships. For further information, visit www.cis-sic.ca or follow us on:  

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For further information, please contact:

Ben Matchett
University of Calgary
T: 403-220-8143
C: 403-863-8143
E:ben.matchett@ucalgary.ca

  Lindsay Franco
University of Calgary
T: 403-220-5082
C: 403-993-8122
E:lfranco@ucalgary.ca

  Michel Bélanger        
Communications & Media Relations
Canadian Interuniversity Sport
T: 613-562-5670 ext. 25
C: 613-447-6334
E: belanger@universitysport.ca