CALGARY — Tournament MVP Kelly Campbell recorded a 38-save shutout as the Western Mustangs blanked the defending champion McGill Martlets 5-0 on Sunday to claim their first-ever Golden Path Trophy in the CIS women’s hockey championship.
The heavily-favoured Martlets, who had made appearances in six of the last eight national finals, were dethroned by a Mustangs team that was participating not only in its first ever CIS championship game, but its inaugural appearance at a CIS national championship tournament.
Western relied on Campbell, who allowed just one goal in the 94 shots she faced in the tournament– shutting out the two highest-scoring offences in the nation this season in Montreal and McGill.
With five goals on just 15 shots, Western became the third Ontario school in history to capture the CIS women’s hockey title and the first since Wilfrid Laurier in 2005.
"There’s no way to describe this feeling," said Campbell, who was named the first team All-Canadian netminder Wednesday night. "We’ve worked so hard as a team over the past year and we have the team behind me, I knew we had it the entire time and to get this win against McGill is incredible."
McGill took 10 of the first 11 shots of the game but got a shock when a wrist shot through traffic from Mustangs rookie Anthea Lasis found the back of the net on just their second shot of the game.
Western got two more quick ones in the first five minutes of the second period, which ended Martlets goaltender Taylor Hough’s night after she allowed three goals on just seven shots.
McGill continued to pour on the pressure but Western jumped on every opportunity to counter attack, which led to their fourth goal by championship all-star Kendra Broad, as she ripped a shot past Brittany Smrke on an odd-man rush.
Despite several chances, including a partial breakaway by McGill’s championship all-star Gabrielle Davidson, Campbell was not letting anything past her– making every save look easy against a frustrated Martlets offence.
"What’s there to say about (Campbell)– I mean she’s just, she intimidates the other teams," said Mustangs head coach Chris Higgins "You could see it, they were trying to go top shelf. They just weren’t shooting at the net they were trying to pick the smallest corners. She’s unbelievable, and the girls in front of her, there are no rebounds, right? She kicked one out and we got it out of the zone."
The Martlets were unable to generate any momentum in the third period, as Western stayed strong on defence. A fifth goal in the final minute of play from Casey Rosen topped off the offence.
McGill went 0 for 3 on the power play, while Mustangs capitalized on two-of-five power-play opportunities.
Earlier in the day, Elodie Rousseau-Sirios stopped 27 shots as the sixth-ranked Montreal Carabins edged the No. 4 St. Francis Xavier X-Women 2-1 to claim the bronze medal.
Montreal collected its fourth medal in school history despite the program only being in existence for six seasons– winning the title in 2013 and finishing second in 2012 and 2014.
Jessica Cormier opened the scoring at 18:22 of the first period for the Carabins and Emmanuelle Passard tacked on the eventual winner 1:22 into the second. Laurence Beaulieu set up both goals for Montreal.
Kara Power ended Rousseau-Sirois’ shutout bid when she put the X-Women on the board at 11:21 of the third.
Sojung Shin turned away 30-of-32 shots for St.FX.
Montreal went 1 for 6 on the power play while the X-Women failed to convert on three chances with the man advantage.
Guelph toppled Moncton 4-1 in the fifth-place match.