Dalhousie’s late rally to bring the game to overtime would ultimately be foiled by a weak penalty against them.
Janie Leblanc only needed 18 seconds on the power play and a successful point shot to stop Dal’s comeback attempt in its tracks Jan. 7, driving Moncton to a 4 – 3 victory over the Tigers at Memorial Arena.
A questionable hooking call on Elizabeth Matheson 3:02 into the extra frame gave the opposing Aigles Bleus the only advantage they needed. Jocelyn Leblanc said surrendering the winning goal while shorthanded is an unfortunate reality of the game.
“Usually in overtime the ref puts his whistle away and [today] he didn’t. It’s kind of a crappy way to end for us, but you can never blame it on the ref.”
The overtime period was only required after Dal’s Leblanc scored her 12th of the season with 44 seconds left in regulation to tie the match at three.
“Me and Miranda were just battling in the corner and I got it out in the slot for her, she shot and the rebound came right to me,” Leblanc recalled. “It trickled off my stick and it went in. I’m lucky the goalie was out of position.”
Dal’s comeback began late in the second period when Fielding Montgomery made it a one-goal contest. The third-year found herself in the right place at the right time, capitalizing on a deflection off a defender’s skate to pot the easy marker in front of the net.
For the conference-leading Aigles Bleus, the match was a reality check that they must come to play for a full 60 minutes.
“There’s no excuse. We should have come out way on top, way more than they did, but Dal played us great,” said player of the game Marie-Michelle Poirier, who had two goals and one assist.
“We were up 3 – 1 and they came back. They deserved that game. We stole it from them, to be honest.”
Kathy Desjardins stood tall in net for Moncton, denying 20 shots. Britanny McMacken stopped 17 at the other end of the rink.
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