Eve Gascon made 23 saves to backstop the Gatineau Olympiques to a 7-3 victory over the Drummondville Voltigeurs on Friday, marking the second time a woman has won a QMJHL game and the first time in 22 years.
Gascon’s victory came in her second start for the Olympiques. The 18-year-old goaltender made history on March 19 as the third female player to play in the QMJHL, following in the footsteps of Manon Rheaume and Charline Labonte.
Rheaume famously became the first woman to play in a major North American pro-sports league in 1992, when she tried out for the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning and played in a pre-season game against the St. Louis Blues.
Labonte, a four-time Olympic gold medallist, is the only other woman to win a game in the QMJHL, doing so for the Acadie-Bathurst Titan in 2000.
With her winning effort, Gascon earned the game’s first star in front of a home Gatineau crowd.
The Terrebonne, Que. native Gascon was the first female player to play midget triple-A hockey in Quebec, and was called up by the Olympiques earlier in March from the St-Laurent Patriotes of the CEGEP men’s league.
Gascon was recently sent back to her CEGEP team, before being called up again to start in Friday’s game.
With files from Canadian Press