2019 National Women's Under-18 Championship

QUEBEC CRUISES TO WIN OVER B.C.

QUINTON AMUNDSON

MORDEN, Man. – Maya Labad (Mascouche, Que.) produced two goals and an assist and Marianne Picard (Repentigny, Que.) lit the lamp twice to guide Quebec to a 7-1 win over British Columbia in preliminary-round action Tuesday at the 2019 National Women’s Under-18 Championship.

Laurence Frenette (Boisbriand, Que.), Kaleann Laforge (St-Nazaire d'Acton, Que.) and Mégane Quirion (St-Eustache, Que.) also delivered goals for Quebec, and Ann-Frédérik Naud (St-Félix-de-Valois, Que.) shone from a playmaking perspective with three assists.

Sarah Paul (West Kelowna, B.C.) delivered the lone goal for B.C.

Ève Gascon (Terrebonne, Que.) provided a steady 21-save performance in net to pick up the win.

Quebec surged out of the opening puck drop by manufacturing a 2-0 lead before the game was four minutes old. Labad drew first blood just 18 seconds in with a sharp-angle wrist shot and Picard buried a rebound off a wild scramble in the B.C. crease less than three minutes later for a power-play marker.

British Columbia cut the lead in half before the five-minute mark courtesy of a goal-of-the-tournament candidate from Paul that saw her soar past a defender with a toe-drag before beating Gascon with a backhand dangle.

Picard’s second power-play tally of the game restored Quebec’s two-goal edge with less than two minutes to go before the first intermission as she cruised into the deep slot and beat B.C. netminder Kayle Munro (North Vancouver, B.C.) with a forehand drive.

B.C. could not stop Quebec from finding the back of the net twice in the first four minutes for the second-straight period.

LaForge floated in a wrist shot to expand Quebec’s lead to 4-1 at 2:11 of the stanza, chasing Munro, and Labad one-timed a shot past Jordyn Verbeek (Langley, B.C.) for a power-play goal 88 seconds later.

Quebec fed off the momentum to build a 15-8 edge in shots in the middle frame. However, B.C. skaters did have their opportunities as they forced Gascon to weather multiple point-blank shots late in the period.

Frenette and Quirion finalized the scoring in a third period that saw Quebec outshoot B.C. 19-2.

Quebec finished the game 3-for-8 on the power play while B.C. failed on convert on three opportunities.