Lots of penalties, lots of rookies and a fight: it was definitely a preseason game on Wednesday at Ed Meagher Arena.
The Concordia Stingers men’s hockey team faced off in their first exhibition contest of the year against the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières Patriotes, and came up just short in a 4-3 losing effort.
The game featured 23 penalties, 14 of which were called against the Stingers. However, despite the amount of infractions, neither team’s coaches were concerned with the officiating.
“It was a preseason game for everybody,” said Stingers’ coach Kevin Figsby. “[Referee Dominick Bedard] was setting the tone for the season and was making sure players knew what he was going to allow and what he wasn’t going to allow.”
“[Bedard] officiated at the Memorial Cup (the CHL national championship) and is a very good referee,” said Patriotes’ coach Jacques Laporte.
The game did not start well for the Stingers who found themselves down 1-0 only 1:49 into the game.
A UQTR dump-in took an unfortunate bounce off the backboards and came back out in front of the net, right on to the stick of Patriotes’ forward Olivier Donovan. Donovan easily buried a shot past goalie Nick Champion, who was disoriented as to where the puck was.
The boards were playing tricks on the goalies all game. “The boards and behind the net are very live,” said Champion, who is going to be the Stingers’ starting goalie. “The puck comes off them almost as fast as it goes in. Every rink has its own unique aspects like that, that you have to get used to. It’s just something I’ll have to work on in practice.”
Charles-Antoine Messier would answer for the Stingers just over a minute later, though, one timing a cross-ice pass from Alex Monahan. Concordia would go up 2-1 at the 11-minute mark of the first on a shot from the point by Etienne St. Germain, but the lead was short-lived.
UQTR answered back only a minute later on a powerplay goal by Gabriel Lemieux and would go ahead late in the period on a beautiful individual play by Pierre-Alexandre Joncas.
Joncas knocked a Concordia clearing attempt out of midair and down onto his stick just inside the blue line. He then made a dazzling move with the puck to get around a Concordia defenceman to come in on a partial breakaway and rip a shot past the glove of Champion.
After a powerplay goal by Felix Lefrancois doubled the Patriotes’ lead in the second period, tempers boiled over shortly after when a fight broke out between Kyle Kelly of the Stingers and Jean-Laurence Beauchemin from UQTR.
“It was a dead play after the whistle and he punched me in the face,” said Kelly. “I just stood my ground and he punched me again, and you can’t just let guys walk all over you and your teammates. I set an example early in the season that we’re not going to let anyone push us around in our own barn.”
The Stingers would pull within one midway through the third period on a goal by Francois Lanctot, but were unable to generate any sustainable pressure afterwards.
Despite the loss, Figsby was satisfied with his team. “I saw what I thought I would see,” he said. “We’re still in tryouts so 50 per cent of our lineup was rookies going against their full roster, and we lost by a goal. The first goal was a bad bounce and two others were scored on the powerplay without our normal penalty killers on the ice.”
The Concordia Stingers men’s hockey team faced off in their first exhibition contest of the year against the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières Patriotes, and came up just short in a 4-3 losing effort.
The game featured 23 penalties, 14 of which were called against the Stingers. However, despite the amount of infractions, neither team’s coaches were concerned with the officiating.
“It was a preseason game for everybody,” said Stingers’ coach Kevin Figsby. “[Referee Dominick Bedard] was setting the tone for the season and was making sure players knew what he was going to allow and what he wasn’t going to allow.”
“[Bedard] officiated at the Memorial Cup (the CHL national championship) and is a very good referee,” said Patriotes’ coach Jacques Laporte.
The game did not start well for the Stingers who found themselves down 1-0 only 1:49 into the game.
A UQTR dump-in took an unfortunate bounce off the backboards and came back out in front of the net, right on to the stick of Patriotes’ forward Olivier Donovan. Donovan easily buried a shot past goalie Nick Champion, who was disoriented as to where the puck was.
The boards were playing tricks on the goalies all game. “The boards and behind the net are very live,” said Champion, who is going to be the Stingers’ starting goalie. “The puck comes off them almost as fast as it goes in. Every rink has its own unique aspects like that, that you have to get used to. It’s just something I’ll have to work on in practice.”
Charles-Antoine Messier would answer for the Stingers just over a minute later, though, one timing a cross-ice pass from Alex Monahan. Concordia would go up 2-1 at the 11-minute mark of the first on a shot from the point by Etienne St. Germain, but the lead was short-lived.
UQTR answered back only a minute later on a powerplay goal by Gabriel Lemieux and would go ahead late in the period on a beautiful individual play by Pierre-Alexandre Joncas.
Joncas knocked a Concordia clearing attempt out of midair and down onto his stick just inside the blue line. He then made a dazzling move with the puck to get around a Concordia defenceman to come in on a partial breakaway and rip a shot past the glove of Champion.
After a powerplay goal by Felix Lefrancois doubled the Patriotes’ lead in the second period, tempers boiled over shortly after when a fight broke out between Kyle Kelly of the Stingers and Jean-Laurence Beauchemin from UQTR.
“It was a dead play after the whistle and he punched me in the face,” said Kelly. “I just stood my ground and he punched me again, and you can’t just let guys walk all over you and your teammates. I set an example early in the season that we’re not going to let anyone push us around in our own barn.”
The Stingers would pull within one midway through the third period on a goal by Francois Lanctot, but were unable to generate any sustainable pressure afterwards.
Despite the loss, Figsby was satisfied with his team. “I saw what I thought I would see,” he said. “We’re still in tryouts so 50 per cent of our lineup was rookies going against their full roster, and we lost by a goal. The first goal was a bad bounce and two others were scored on the powerplay without our normal penalty killers on the ice.”
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