Concordia Stingers women’s hockey team steamrolling opposition, eyeing return to national championships

The Concordia Stingers’ women’s hockey team are on what their athletics department is calling a “revenge tour.”

Last year the Stingers lost in overtime in the final of the national championships game. Since then, they’ve been on a roll in their 2023-24 campaign, going undefeated during the regular season with 25 wins and no losses.

“I think we have the team to revenge last year’s loss so we’re on the way,” said Jessymaude Drapeau, a forward for the Concordia Stingers women’s hockey team.

‘We were really motivated by last year. I mean, going into training camp, it was like we were really focused,” said Caroline Moquin-Joubert, another forward for the Stingers. “And for sure, we built on that.”

Concordia has won with an explosive offence averaging more than four goals and 35 shots a game. They also did it with defence, allowing just 1.28 goals a game.

“Our team has a lot of depth, and I think that’s what’s really special is that at any day, at any moment, someone can step up and be a difference maker. And we really focus on that,” said Julie Chu, the Stingers head coach, adding, “we focus a lot on our culture. Our culture is team first.”

Five Concordia players were named to all star teams in their conference and Chu was named coach of the year.

“She’s always having solutions to the problems. She’s bringing that aspect that I think not a lot of teams have,” said Drapeau about her head coach.

“She adapts to every personality, different personality we have on the team,” added Moquin-Joubert.

Now, the Stingers are back in the playoffs and preparing for their conference finals, in order to return to the national championship.

“We have our eyes set on winning a national championship. So I think for us, it’s not necessarily fueled more or less because we lost in the finals last year. I think for us, it’s our mindset this year, of when we came together and we talked about our goals and we set our vision, that’s what this team decided they wanted,” said Chu. 

“I don’t think we’re on a revenge but you always think about it. You want to revenge your loss but we did everything right this year to be in that position right now,” said Drapeau. 

“Of course, I think it’s driving us what the result was from last year, but there’s also new players who didn’t even have that experience last year. So, right now, we’re focused on this team this season and the goals that we can reach this year,” said Jordyn Verbeek, a goalie for the Stingers.

Concordia will face off against the Université de Montréal Carabins in the RSEQ final – the first game is Thursday at the Ed Meagher Arena.

The Stingers did suffer a loss in their last playoff match up – a best-of-three series against the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees. That defeat may just have reignited this team’s fire, as they bounced back to crush Ottawa 13-0 in the deciding game to advance.