Bisons defeat Mustangs 2-0 to take first national hockey title

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 18/03/2018 (2998 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

LONDON, Ont. — Jon Rempel is not easily given to public displays of emotion.

But Sunday night, after the University of Manitoba women’s hockey team claimed its first national championship with a 2-0 win over the hometown Western Ontario Mustangs, the Bisons head coach let loose a little bit.

The program he had guided for 14 years had reached the pinnacle.  

“It’s an incredibly special moment,” said Rempel via telephone. “It’s been four, five years with this group but it’s also 14 years of chasing the dream, really, is what it’s been. It’s been lessons learned, heartache along the way. Ups and downs. Wins and losses. I’m a little overwhelmed. I’m don’t easily get overwhelmed but I’m plenty overwhelmed right now.

“This is an incredible group of people I’m so fortunate to coach and try to help them in their careers, be a mentor or whatever you want to call it.”

It was the first U Sports national title in the 21-year history of the University of Manitoba women’s program. In fact, the U of M had not won a national hockey title since the Bisons men’s team claimed the big prize 53 years ago — in 1965.

Tournament MVP Lauryn Keen scored a power-play goal late in the second period and Finnish Olympian Venla Hovi added an insurance marker early in the third to spark the Bisons before 1,600 fans at Thompson Arena.

“This is the way we’ve been playing and it’s kinda what we’re used to,” said Keen. “It was nice to get that 4-0 (quarter-final) win right off the start. They were close games but we felt pretty comfortable through them all.”

Hovi, a three-time Olympian who returned to the Bisons after winning her second bronze medal at the recent Pyeongchang Winter Games, was thrilled to cap her season with even more hardware.

“It’s so nice, it’s definitely something brighter,” said Hovi with a laugh. “I’m always so hard on myself, trying to push for something better and I feel like this is kinda (culmination of) the work that I’ve done during my whole career and now it’s right here and I can’t believe it.”

Manitoba goaltender Lauren Taraschuk made 20 saves for the shutout to cap a sensational national championship performance.

The 18-year-old Winnipegger, curiously not named to the tournament’s all-star squad, stopped 20 shots Sunday and allowed only one goal in a combined 59 shots in three games. Taraschuk finished the tournament with a 0.32 goals-against average and a .983 save percentage after splitting goaltending duties with Rachel Dyck during the regular season.

“I knew what I thought she was capable of doing,” said Rempel of the Canada West rookie of the year. “I thought we’d be talking about this in about 2019 or 2020. The development — the meteoric rise — I didn’t see that coming. I knew she was a very, very, disciplined. She plays with an edge and is so confident.

“Rachel, our other goaltender, deserved a lot of credit because without Rachel I don’t know if it goes this way. Both had a big part to play.” 

Carmen Lasis made 23 stops for the host Mustangs. Western went 0-for-3 on the power play while the Bisons scored once in five opportunities.

The Bisons advanced to the final with a 4-0 quarter-final victory over the Queen’s Gaels on Friday and 2-1 shootout decision in the semifinals over the Concordia Stingers on Saturday.

Rempel said he had a lot of faith in his team at the start of the regular season.

“I knew how close we had been,” said Rempel. “Two years in a row we didn’t make it (to the national tournament) even though we made it to the conference final… I knew the team was really close and then we added a couple of pieces this year that really, in terms of depth and talent and character, really helped us take the next step.”

Western reached the final with a 4-0 quarter-final victory over the Montreal Carabins and a 2-1 semifinal win over the Saskatchewan Huskies.

In Sunday’s bronze-medal game, Claudia Dubois scored twice and added an assist to lead Concordia to a 4-0 win over Saskatchewan Huskies. Brigitte Laganiere and Sophie Gagnon added singles for the winners, who got a 37-save shutout from Katherine Purchase.

Jessica Vance made 24 stops in the Huskies net.  

— staff