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Home > Articles > Intercollegiate Sport > Gaels bow in overtime at CIS women's hockey tournament
Gaels bow in overtime at CIS women's hockey tournament
Posted: March 8th, 2013 @ 8:41pm
By CLAUDE SCILLEY
Queen's Golden Gaels remain in the hunt for the gold medal at the Canadian Interuniversity Sport women's hockey tournament, despite a 2-1 overtime loss to the St. Francis Xavier X-Women Friday at Toronto.
That's thanks to the point the Gaels collected for taking the game into overtime. That means if Queen's can defeat defending champion Calgary Saturday afternoon in regulation time they will finish preliminary play with four points, one more than the Dinos, who beat St. F.X. 4-0 to open the tournament Thursday.
"We're disappointed but we're not done playing yet," said Gaels coach Matt Holmberg. "It's pretty simple. If we beat Calgary in regulation, we play for gold (Sunday)."
A Queen's victory tomorrow would leave all three teams in the pool with 1-1 records at a tournament where regulation victories are worth three points, overtime wins two points and an overtime loss one point.
The top team in the pool will advance to Sunday's championship game against the team that emerges from the other pool, comprising Montreal, British Columbia and the host Toronto Blues.
"The good news is we're still very much in control of our own destiny," Holmberg said.
Still, the defeat stung for a number of reasons. Queen's took the lead in the game's third minute, on a goal by Brittany McHaffie, and held it for more than 40 minutes before Jenna Pitts tied the game for St. F.X. early in the third period.
In addition to being unable to nurse the early lead to the end, the Gaels will also reflect on several fine scoring opportunities in the second period, a dubious game-tying goal and a fruitless power play. Easily the most critical of five player-advantage situations Queen's wasted came in the second minute of overtime.
"Obviously when you've got some of your best players out there you're hoping that they can finish the game off," Holmberg said, "but you don't often practice the 4-on-3. That's kind of an odd circumstance to have. We had an opportunity - and didn't take advantage."
There was some discussion of the validity of the game-tying goal, which went into the net behind Queen's goaltender Karissa Savage off Pitts' skate.
"We're a team that doesn't make excuses, so take it for what it is," Holmberg said, "but from my vantage point it looked like (that) goal was kicked in. I talked to the ref about it and she agreed that it hit a player's skate."
After consulting with her linesmen, however, the official allowed the goal and there was no strong protest from the Queen's bench. "It was all three of their opinions there was no distinct kicking motion," Holmberg said.
"Sometimes you agree with the ref and sometimes you don't. We had a lot of chances throughout the rest of the game to put it up 2-0 and maybe give ourselves a cushion in the event of a call but that's the way the game goes sometimes."
Indeed, had the Gaels capitalized on some of their opportunities in a second period that they dominated the nature of the Pitts goal would have been moot.
"The second period was a great period for us," Holmberg said. "There was a stretch of 10 minutes where they didn't even get a shot. We kept up the pressure, and unfortunately couldn't convert, but we played very, very well. When we play that style, that's when we're at our strongest."
For that reason, Holmberg said, his players never gave the air of becoming frustrated that such domination wasn't translating into a bigger lead.
"The team actually gets a jolt out of pure forechecking and possession time. Scoring would have been preferable but the mood was very good on the bench. It was very positive. We really enjoy when we play like that."
Though his team was outshot 41-30 - including 19-10 in the third period and 6-4 in an overtime where his team had the only power play - Holmberg said he believes his team played "really well."
"St. F.X has been to the national championship many times. They're the best of their conference," he said. "I thought by and large we carried the play, we forechecked well and probably had the edge in terms of (puck) possession and time in their zone.
"Their goaltender made some great saves. A couple of bounces and it might have been 4-1 for us."
Each team had a glorious opportunity to win the game in the dying seconds of the third period. With overtime looming, Queen's captain Kristin Smith found herself alone with the puck on the doorstep of Katie Greenway, with what seemed like an eternity to shoot, but she was unable to out-guess the X-Women's goalie.
Play immediately went to the other end, where all-Canadian forward Alex Normore had a similarly splendid opportunity that was denied by Savage.
"That's life at the national championship," Holmberg said. "Two good teams with good talent and good goaltenders both wanting to win really badly. Instead of sitting back and being happy to get into overtime, clearly both teams wanted to try to end it in regulation."
Taylor Dale scored on a rebound at 7:55 of a 10-minute overtime period to give the X-Women the victory.
"That was a hockey play," Holmberg said. "I know from my vantage point that the St. F.X. player wouldn't have had a large window to bury it and she made the most of it."
The defeat couldn't dampen too much what has been a big week for Holmberg, whose wife gave birth to their first child, Gwenyth Abbigael, on Tuesday.
"It's been an amazing week for me," he said. "Going back to winning the OUA championship last Friday, to becoming a father, to participating at nationals - it's got to be one of the best weeks of my life."
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