The Rundown - U SPORTS Quarterfinals

While there may be four days of action in Charlottetown, PEI at the 2022 U SPORTS National Women's Hockey Championship happening, HBIC will feature three-straight days of recaps! We'll start with the two days of quarterfinal action in today's edition of The Rundown while Saturday's edition will recap the semifinal games and Sunday will wrap everything up with the awarding of medals and the Golden Path Trophy. The hockey action has been intense as the eight teams look to take one step closer to immortality. Let's find out who will play whom in semifinal action on Saturday today on The Rundown!

The opening game of the tournament on Thursday afternoon saw the seventh-seeded McGill Martlets, finalists in the RSEQ, meet the AUS champions and second-seeded UNB Reds. McGill has been to the tournament on a number of occasions while UNB was making their first appearance at Nationals, so one had to wonder if nerves would factor into the equation on the Reds' side. Tricia Deguire started for McGill while Kendra Woodland was between the pipes for UNB!

McGill appeared to be the more aggressive team in the opening frame, and that constant pressure they were mounting paid off at 8:27 when Laura Jardin used her speed to pull away from the UNB defence and deke around Woodland as the Martlets grabbed the 1-0 lead. Three minutes later while on the power-play, Marika Labrecque shoveled home a rebound off a Jade Landry-Downie shot, and McGill was up by a pair at 12:03! There were a handful of chances for the Reds in the first period, but they couldn't salve Deguire in the opening frame as McGill carried the 2-0 lead into the break on the strength of a 12-4 advantage in shots!

Things looked like they might get worse for the Reds as McGill was awarded a penalty shot within the first couple of minutes of the second period, but Kendra Woodland stared down the reigning U SPORTS Player of the Year in Jade Landry-Downie as she stopped the shot. That seemed to fire up the Reds as they went down the other end and scored courtesy of Sydney Oitomen's shot off a blocked Marley Van den oetel, and the Reds cut the lead to 2-1 just 2:03 into the period. 59 seconds later, though, the Marlets caught the Reds on a line change as Jade Landry-Downie was sent in alone from the blue line, and Landry-Downie went iron-and-in on Woodland to make it a 3-1 game! It seemed we'd be headed to third period with that score, but McGill notched one more in the dying seconds as Stephanie Desjardins from behind the net fed Makenzie McCallum in the slot, and she buried it past Woodland with 14.9 seconds left for the 4-1 Martlets lead! With McGill holding a three-goal lead and a 20-10 lead in shots, it seemed like this one might be over.

Whatever Sarah Hilworth said in the room between periods might have been the key to UNB's jump coming out of the room in this period as Reagan Minor drove the net, and Jana Headrick poked the puck past Deguire in the scramble just 38 seconds into the frame to make it a 4-2 game. 87 seconds later, Minor broke down the left side, tried to feed Payton Hargreaves who had her stick tied up, but Jenna Maclean swooped in and swept the puck under Deguire as she lunged forward to cover it, and it became a 4-3 game just 2:05 into the third period! UNB didn't sit back as they still needed a goal, and they'd find the equalizer just past the midway point while on the power-play when Jenna Maclean's centering pass landed on the tape of a wide-open Lillian George, and George went glove-side on Deguire to tie the game at 4-4 at the 10:29 mark!

In what was one of the more wild ten minutes of any period at Nationals I've seen in a while, the teams, squared up at 4-4, settled down and played some incredible back-and-forth hockey over the final 9:31 of action. No other goals were scored, so we'd get overtime in the opening game of the 2022 U SPORTS National Women's Hockey Championship! Overtime, though, would solve nothing, so we'd hit the shootout to find a winner.

Both Deguire and Woodland were perfect through the opening three rounds of shooters. UNB's fourth shooter, Ashley Stratton, skated in on the right side and went shelf on the glove-side as Deguire was going down to put UNB up a goal. Jade Downey-Landry, after having been stopped once, came out for her second shootout attempt, and Woodland closed the wickets as Downie-Landry tried to go five-hole to secure the 5-4 comeback victory and advance to the semifinals! Kendra Woodland picked up her first win at Nationals by stopping 31 shots plus four more in the shootout and a penalty shot while Tricia Deguire suffered the loss after a 25-save performance.

UNB awaits the winner of the UBC-Nipissing quarterfinal game while McGill will play the losing squad from that same game. Both of those games will happen on Saturday.

Highlights of this game are below, and I'm surprised that U SPORTS isn't posting them to their YouTube channel. I had to piece these together from social media accounts, so hopefully this will suffice in place of official highlight packages from U SPORTS.

The sixth-seeded Nipissing Lakers, who were the OUA finalists, met the Canada West champions and third-seeded UBC Thunderbirds in the second game of the tournament on Thursday. UBC hadn't been to Nationals since 2017, but that makes them more experienced than Nipissing who was playing at the big dance for the first time in their history. Would nerves factor in for the Lakers in their debut? Chloe Marshall was in the crease for the Lakers while UBC went with rookie standout Elise Hugens in their net!

This game was far more physical than I thought it would be as both sides spent some time in the sin bin in the opening frame. Both teams had chances, but neither netminder was interested in giving up goals through the first 20 minutes of the game. UBC led 13-9 in shots, but Nipissing showed that they were willing to stand toe-to-toe with Canada West's best.

It was a different second period as Nipissing began a parade to the penalty box en route to being whistled for four minor penalties in the frame. UBC's power-play, though, looked off as Nipissing threw any and all bodies in front of shots while clearing rebounds for Marshall. Without shots getting to the net and Nipissing denying players from reaching there as well, UBC's power-play simply couldn't capitalize. It would be a second period without goals as UBC was up 27-13 in shots thanks to those power-plays, but the 0-0 stalemate held firm.

Three more penalties for the Lakers in this period led to UBC getting more chances on Marshall, but it was fairly clear that she wasn't going to be beat very easily on this night. Nipissing did have a handful of chances as well, but Hugens stood tall in the UBC net as well. At the final horn in regulation time, the 0-0 score was still in place, so we were off to overtime for the second-straight game as UBC led 40-22 in shots!

In the overtime period, Nipissing seemed to find their legs more than UBC did, and that resulted in prolonged periods of pressure for the Lakers inside the UBC zone for the first time in the game. That seemed to invigorate them more, and, at the 7:11 mark, Maria Dominico would center a pass that found Madison Solie at the point with bodies in front, and her blast through traffic beat Hugens on the blocker side to give Nipissing the 1-0 overtime victory over UBC! Chloe Marshall pitched a 41-save shutout for her first Nationals win while Elise Hugens made 26 saves in the loss.

Nipissing advances to play UNB on Saturday afternoon while UBC will meet McGill in the consolation semifinal on Saturday morning.

Highlights of this game are below!

The fifth-seeded Canada West finalists in the Saskatchewan Huskies met the OUA champions and fourth-seeded Brock Badgers in the early game on Friday. Saskatchewan's last appearance came in 2018 in London, Ontario where they finished in fourth-place while Brock was at the tournament for the first time. We've asked this of the other first-timers, so would nerves creep in for the Badgers against the Huskies? Could the Huskies get back to their offensive ways that dried up in the Canada West final? Camryn Drever was in the blue paint for the Huskies while Tiffany Hsu protected the Brock net in this game!

There was good pace between these two squads after Saskatchewan killed off a couple of early penalties, weathering a potential storm. Brock would get flagged for a minor penalty later in the frame, but the Badgers denied the Huskies on their opportunity. Both goaltenders were solid throughout the period as the 0-0 score would hold at the final horn with Saskatchewan up 11-8 in shots after 20 minutes of play.

There was a scary pause in the second period when Jordyn Holmes fell awkwardly, and she would need help to get off the ice. We'll get to her situation in a second, but it would seem that the Huskies regrouped during the stoppage as Sara Kendall used a wraparound at the 6:12 mark where Hsu couldn't squeeze the post enough to give Saskatchewan the 1-0 lead! The only power-play in the period would come minutes later, but Brock couldn't solve Drever nor the Huskies' penalty-killing unit as the single goal stood through the remainder of the period as the difference. We'd head to the third period with the Huskies up 1-0 and holding a 22-21 edge in shots!

The third period started off with Saskatchewan buzzing, and it would pay off when Brooklyn Stevely's shot from the top of the circle dented twine behind Hsu to make it 2-0 for Saskatchewan just 1:16 into the frame! Minutes later, Larissa Bohlken would win a puck battle along the right half-boards, and she'd find Kara Kondrat who went through the wickets on Hsu at 3:53 to make it 3-0 for the Huskies despite Bronwyn Boucher getting credit for the helper! From there, the Huskies shut down opportunities that the Badgers tried to exploit, and Nicole Fry would hit the vacated net wth Hsu on the bench to make it 4-0 with 3:36 to play, and the Saskatchewan Huskies claimed victory over the Brock Badgers by the 4-0 score! Camryn Drever earned her first win and shutout at Nationals with a 27-save performance while Tiffany Hsu was on the wrong end of a 29-save effort.

Saskatchewan awaits the winner of the UPEI-Concordia quarterfinal game while Brock will play the losing squad from that same game. Both of those games will happen on Saturday.

Highlights of this game are below!

The final semifinal game saw the host team of the 2022 U SPORTS National Women's Hockey Championship and the eighth-seeded UPEI Panthers face off against the RSEQ champions and the top-seeded Concordia Stingers. UPEI needed a solid effort in this game to both erase the memories of their early exit from the AUS playoffs and to battle a formidible foe in the Stingers. Concordia, meanwhile, looked to continue rolling following their conference championship victory. Camille Scherger was between the pipes for the Panthers while the Stingers countered with Alice Philbert as their stopper in this game.

As you know, HBIC won't celebrate blowouts by any team on this blog, and I'm not about to do that in the final weekend of Nationals. Rosalie Bégin-Cyr scored for the Stingers on the power-play at 13:46 to open the scoring, and that was the only goal in the first period of this game despite Concordia outshooting UPEI 10-4.

Brigitte Laganière made it 2-0 with a power-play goal at 14:37 of the second period, and Stéphanie Lalancette added Concordia's third goal to their total just 1:12 later as Concordia held a three-goal lead through 40 minutes of play while posting a 21-11 advantage in shots.

Just 47 seconds into the third period, Bégin-Cyr made it 4-0 while shorthanded. Maria Manarolis put the Stingers up by five at 4:19. Bégin-Cyr capped off the hat trick at 9:58 for Concordia's sixth tally of the night, and Audrey Belzile would add a power-play goal at 18:05 to finish off the scoring as the Concordia Stingers advanced past the UPEI Panthers by a 7-0 score. Alice Philbert recorded the win and shutout on the strength of a 14-save performance while Camille Scherger stopped 25 shots in the loss.

Concordia advances to play Saskatchewan on Saturday night while UPEI will meet Brock in the consolation semifinal on Saturday afternoon.

A few highlights from this game can be found below.

We're halfway through this tournament, and there have already been a few upsets, a few surprises, and some incredible hockey action. Here's what the brackets look like after the quarterfinal round!

There's more action on the CBC website this weekend, so make sure you're tuning in as four teams stand two wins away from immortality!

The Last Word

There was no word out of PEI last night about the status of Jordyn Holmes, but I'm guessing her tournament is over. You never want to see a player get hurt for any reason, and losing Holmes will affect the Huskies in forcing them to shuffle their lineup. We'll see how everything plays out, but I doubt we'll see Holmes again this weekend.

It should be noted that one team from each of the conferences is still alive as the semifinal round begins, and that means that the gold medal is still up for grabs from any conference across Canada. I like the idea that all conferences are still in play because it shows that anyone can beat anyone in any game from any conference. Having that kind of parity is a reflection of the great coaches who are working their tails off from the eight teams in PEI as they prepare their teams, and it speaks volumes about the players who are excuting the game plans given to them.

Some will call it parity, but I believe this is great preparation and smart coaching combined with players who are well-conditioned and extremely smart as they find ways to beat teams they haven't seen all season. Seeing a couple of underdogs take down the favorites by playing smart, disciplined hockey has been a joy to watch, and I expect more of this over the next couple of days as we look to crown a winner in PEI!

Tune in via the CBC website for all the action in Charlottetown at the 2022 U SPORTS National Women's Hockey Championship!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!