Charlottetown, PEI – The McGill Martlets have managed to become a staple of the U Sports Women’s Hockey National Championships. Since the tournament began in 1998 the Martlets have made 9 appearances (2nd all-time to the Alberta Pandas) and have picked up 4 championship trophies in 2008, 2009, 2011 and most recently 2014. They will get another shot in 2020 as after beating the Montreal Carabins they picked up their 15th RSEQ title and advanced to the National Championships.
The Good
The Martlets come in to the national tournament on a high after rattling off 6 straight wins (including sweeping both playoff series) to close their season. A lot of that comes off the back of Jade Downie-Landry, the 4th year Psychology Student picked up 8 goals and 4 assists in those 6 games including 4 goals over the 2 final games vs the Carabins. All this to add to her 8 goals and 10 assists on the season in just 15 games which awarded her with an RSEQ First Team All-Star Selection.
The Martlets on the defensive side of the puck head into the national tournament strongly as well. Goalie Tricia Deguire continued her utter dominance of her RSEQ competition picking up a league best .930 Save percentage to go along with her 11-7 record.
Across the season Deguire led all RSEQ starting goalies in wins with 11, shutouts with 5, GAA at 1.95 and save percentage at .930, only allowing more than 3 goals in 4 goals across all 28 preseason, league, exhibition and playoff appearances.
The Bad
As I’m writing these profiles I am starting to realize that calling this section, “The Bad” might not be the best title. This is because a lot of these teams don’t really have a bad portion to their game. Some might struggle in some areas but generally these are all the best teams for a reason because otherwise they wouldn’t have gotten this far.
So, considering that, if I wanted to nitpick the Martlets the person who has struggled the most recently would be Kellyanne Lecours. She picked up 14 goals and 11 assists on the season but only had 1 goal and 3 assists in the last 8 games of the season including the playoffs. So she would be a piece for the Martlets that whilst not necessarily vital would be nice to get going.
The X-Factor
With all the firepower, the Martlets have up front, and the star they have in net, an interesting X-factor will come from the blueline. More specifically 4th year defender Kate Devries.
The Bio-Engineering Major had a career year in 2019-2020 helping to run the best powerplay in the league with a league high 8 assists on the PP. Overall, she potted a goal and added 12 helpers and heading into a matchup against a York Lions squad that ranked 2nd in the OUA on the penalty kill at 91.7% it will be up to Devries to be that quarterback on the power play to help the Martlets push through the quarterfinals for a shot at a 5th National Title.
The Martlets will begin their title chase at 2:00pm EST on Friday March 13th vs the York Lions, all the games can seen live on cbcsports.ca or usports.live for French coverage.