Eve Gascon made 23 saves to backstop the Gatineau Olympics with a 7-3 win over Drummondville Voltigeurs on Friday, the second time a woman has won a QMJHL game and the first in 22 years.
Gascon won his second start to the Olympics. The 18-year-old goaltender made history as the third female player to play in QMJHL on 19 March, following in the footsteps of Manon Riom and Charlene Labont.
Rheaume famously became the first woman to play in a major North American pro-sports league in 1992, when she tried for the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning and played in a pre-season game against the St. Louis Blues.
Labante, the four-time Olympic gold medalist, is the only other woman to have won a game at QMJHL in 2000 for the Acady-Bathurst Titan.
In his winning effort, Gascon achieved the first star of the game in front of the home Gatineau crowd.
Terrebonne, Que. Native Gascon was the first female hockey player to play hockey at the Midget Triple in Quebec, and was called to the Olympics in early March from the CEGEP Men’s League Saint-Laurent Patriots.
Gascon was sent back to his CEGEP team before being called up to start Friday’s game.
Including files from the Canadian press