Maxime Sawicki

 The McGill Martlets returned to Quebec University Hockey League competition after a two-game sojourn to the United States and blew out the Carleton Ravens 6-0 on Saturday. With the win, McGill regained the top spot in the conference rankings from Concordia by tying them with six points. Buoyed by their success against Harvard and Dartmouth, McGill never let up on Carleton. The score could have easily been 10-0 if the crossbar wasn’t merciful to Carleton goaltender Tamber Tisdale.

“The games against the American teams were great,” said Head Coach Peter Smith. “There was just a lot of excitement, especially in the game against Harvard. We played a spectacular third period and tied it in the closing minutes. I just think that energy and enthusiasm carried over into this afternoon’s game.”

Star sniper Ann-Sophie Bettez scored 8:22 into the game, putting home a rebound on the power play. Utilizing an aggressive forecheck, and a tight 3-2-0 low formation, the Martlets forced a desperate Ravens team to submit to their will. Every time a Ravens defender tried to clear the puck out of their zone, a Martlet would be there to intercept it. After Alyssa Cecere made it 2-0, rookie forward Leslie Oles scored what was perhaps the highlight of the night. Taking advantage of another Carleton turnover, she fought and won a puck battle against two defenders along the boards, walked out into the slot, and fired home a hard slapper into the top corner of the net.

From the second period onward, however, it was centre Jordanna Peroff who stole the show. Her line consistently created scoring chances on the rush, but it was their work down low that reaped benefits in the second.

“I was just going to the net hard tonight and I got rewarded,” Peroff said. “On the first goal, we just worked hard along the boards and Kim spotted me cross crease. [She] made a beautiful pass and all I did was put it in.”

In such a lopsided game it’s easy to herald the scorers and forget the defenders who allowed them to do their jobs without worrying about defensive lapses. The defence showed remarkable poise in keeping the Carleton offence to the outside and making the first pass in transition. Their contribution to the win was exemplified by Gillian Ferrari’s performance, which earned her the third star of the game.

“I was just playing my game, and competing hard for the puck,” Ferrari said. “We are a puck possession team so it’s really hard for the other team’s offence to be a threat when they don’t own the puck most of the time. We emphasized speed in transition so that probably helped in stifling their offence.”