Thoughts on day one from the CIS women's hockey championship   

- March 12 2010

Sitting on lead puts Alberta in the driver's seat

Alberta got what it wanted playing Katie-bar-the-door.

Trouble was, the Pandas' 1-0 victory over Laurier probably was not the game anyone hoped to watch. It was, to be honest, a pretty dull defensive game, with Alberta sitting on a lead after Leah Copeland (first credited to all-name team captain Alana Cabana) beat CIS player of the year Liz Knox just 1:11 into the proceedings in Antigonish.

Laurier, which faces St. Francis Xavier on Friday and then would need help from the X-Women, might have taken a little long figuring out how to play Alberta. It had just one shot on Pandas goalie Dana Vinge in the first 20 minutes. Laurier buzzed the net quite a bit in the latter two periods, but couldn't get the bounces.

Martlets fly just little higher than a Herron

Enough was enough for Rebecca Martindale and McGill.

The Martlets made it 85 wins in a row with a 2-1 overtime win over Montreal at the CIS women's hockey championship, meaning they have a day to rest up for Saint Mary's on Sunday. Martindale, the Kingston native, got the decider 3:17 into overtime, redirecting a pass from Jordanna Peroff. It was fitting it was Martindale, since she had almost ended it a couple minutes when she beaned Carabins 'tender Catherine Herron with a point-blank shot off the top of the mask.

It kind of was a so-close-yet-so-far reaction with Montreal extending their city rival to overtime. The Carabins were outshot 41-10 and had only four shots on goal in the final 40-plus minutes. Granted, people this is a first-year program playing catch-up to a juggernaut, so taking it to OT is no easy task. Montreal almost managed to get Kim Deschenes sprung for a breakaway in the overtime, but Cathy Chartrand intercepted the pass. A couple minutes later, Chartrand started the play for the winning goal.

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