Eve Gascon to follow footsteps as third female goaltender to play in QMJHL
Eve Gascon is set to join a legendary group of women who have played in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League action.
The 5-foot-7 Gascon, 18, will play for the Gatineau Olympiques Saturday as they take on the Rimouski Oceanic.
She joins Manon Rheaume and Charline Labonte as the only women to take the ice.
This year, Gascon has been playing with her school team, the Saint-Laurent Patriotes, a boys team, where she’s posted a 10-5 record, a 2.81 goals-against average and an .899 save percentage.
Gascon follows a few trailblazers in the women’s hockey ranks.
Rheaume took to the ice in a 1991-92 game with the Trois-Rivieres Draveurs in one game and she later competed on NHL ice with the Tampa Bay Lightning in preseason games in 1992 and 1993. Labonte, meanwhile, played in parts of two seasons with the Acadie-Bathurst Titan in 1999-00 and 2000-01.
That first year, Labonte played in 26 games posting a .841 save percentage and a 5.22 GAA. She returned the following year playing in just two games posting a .786 save percentage and a 6.00 GAA.
Zach Laing is the Nation Network’s news director and senior columnist. He can be followed on Twitter at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@oilersnation.com.