This past weekend, the Women’s Provincial Championship took place at Sport Expo de Laval. Seven teams started their Saturday morning in top form giving a well earned effort, playing two games each and jousting for positioning in Sundays elimination rounds. After completing what was a high energy day, the two favourites took top seeds only to have Dek Hockey De La Capitale capture first place and a first round buy straight to the semi finals and Dek Drummond finishing second.

The quarter final match ups featured the Impact vs Pures Laines, Palm Bays vs Warriors and Hockey Expert vs the favoured Dek Hockey Drummond. One thing all three games had in common, was that all the winners were able to shut down their opponents allowing no goals what so ever. Marie-Eve Leduc went flawless between the pipes for the Impact in their 2-0 win over Pures Laines, Alex Garcia pushed away 11 balls for the Warriors in a convincing victory over Palm Bays and Martine Gousy denied everything from Hockey Expert allowing the Dek Hockey Drummond to advance. 

These results brought four clubs closer to achieving their goals in the semi finals. Well rested for skipping the quarter finals round, the Dek Hockey de la Capitale immediately got to their opponents, the Impact, when Véronique Carrier opened the scoring just two minutes into the game. Alexandra Roy doubled the lead later in the same period and Stéphanie Savoie was able to add an early second period insurance marker to help her club book a spot to the finals. 

As for the other contest, the end result was decided in a dramatic fashion. Both sides defended well all game long and got excellent goaltending until an eventual marker settled the score. Janie-Claude Arpin played the hero in this affair as she riffled the lone tally in overtime with a feed from Vanessa De Grandpré to beat Alex Garcia for a rare time. 

Leaving only two teams in the tournament, the final stage was set to see who would capture their ultimate goal. The two favourites, Dek Hockey Drummond and DDLC advanced, but they still had to face tough challenges getting there. In what was expected to be a great final, both teams upped their intensity and never gave up until that final buzzer hit. Although Dek Drummond did score first with an early goal from Mélissa Roy, Dek Hockey de la Capitale immediately responded bagging three straight tallies in just the span of over four minutes. Veronique Carrier, Jessica Latouche and Priscilla Paquin all got the better of the opposing goalie for a 3-1 lead until Vanessa De Grandpré gave some life to her club reducing the gap by one. With a few second on the clock, DDLC shut the door with a fourth goal.

Each side had the fire power to generate plenty of offence as the top four goal scorers belonged to both clubs. Priscilla Paquin and Veronique Carrier each finished with seven points for Dek Hockey de la Capitale while Mélissa Roy and Janie-Claude Arpin did the same for Dek Drummond.

On behalf of the Quebec Ball Hockey Association, we would like to congratulate Dek Hockey de la Capitale for their 3rd Provincial title in 4 years, as well as Dek Drummond who was last year’s National Champions for both earning spots to this years Nationals held in Saskatoon. We also congratulate the Impact de St-Jérôme and the Montreal Warriors who will be representing our province in Saint John, NB for the Eastern Regionals. 

Special thanks to Stéphane Côté (Hockey Expert), Christina Oum & Manpreet Kooner (Palm Bays), Lorraine Bourcier & Franceska Perron (Dek Capitale), Vanessa De Grandpré (Dek Drummond), Brittany Diabo (Warriors), Mélie Legris (Pures Laines), and  Jacqueline Montpetit (Impact) who managed their teams effectively and made this tournament possible.