RECAP: Gee-Gees fall to the Gaiters, take Carabins to a shootout

The Gee-Gees women's hockey team took on the Bishop's Gaiters on Friday night, dropping the game 3-1 before returning to Ottawa for their third match with the Montreal Carabins. Things went the distance, and after two overtimes, a shootout was needed. The Carabins took the 2-1 win over the Gee-Gees in the end.

On the road, the Gee-Gees got their weekend started against the Gaiters.

A quiet first two periods had the Gaiters leading 1-0 heading into the final 20 minutes. The Gee-Gees were on their heels as the Gaiters added to their lead in the first 14 seconds of play. Bishop's found another one with the man advantage to extend their lead to 3-0. 

Alyssa Biesenthal prevented the shutout with a powerplay goal at 19:27, too late to change the outcome of the game.

The Gee-Gees hosted the Carabins for a 2 p.m. puck drop on Sunday afternoon. 

Ottawa survived an early penalty kill, putting the pressure on Montreal as soon as they were back to even strength. Despite getting plenty of pucks on net, neither team was able to find the mesh before the buzzer signalled the end of the first period. 

Coming out of the locker room, Béatrice Bilodeau fired in the first goal of the game at 1:55. Montreal wasted no time, finding their first seconds later. 

The scoring quieted down for the remainder of regulation. Tied at 1-1, overtime was required.

Still undecided, a second overtime period was required. Ottawa was forced to send out their penalty kill unit after a tripping call went against them. The Gee-Gees successfully kept the puck away from their net for the duration of the overtime, sending the game to a shootout. 

Montreal struck first, and that goal was all the Carabins needed to lock in the win as each goalie stood solid against the shooters.

Falling 2-1 to the Carabins, that marked the final home game in 2023 for the Gee-Gees. 

"We need to get better every day and the girls are seeing the work they're putting in paying off against these really good teams, and they're starting to see that they belong as well," said Gee-Gees Co-Coach Greg Bowles. "We want to take that same mentality into the second half [of the season] because then the objective becomes slightly different where this was about the learning, and then we need to apply our craft in the second half of the season." 

The Gee-Gees have one last game in the 2023 portion of the season, slated to take on the #1 ranked Concordia Stingers on Dec. 2^nd. Ottawa is back on home ice on Jan. 6^th, 2024 to take on McGill at 7 p.m.