It was a full team effort on Friday Nov. 22 as the Concordia Stingers defeated the Brock Badgers 9-2 at the Ed Meagher Arena.
Although the game began with both teams trading chances, the Stingers never looked back once they broke the deadlock at the 5:25 mark in the first period. Centre Olivier Hinse got Concordia on the board with a beautiful backhand shot on a partial break, and netted another one two minutes later to make it 2-0 for the Stingers.
Before the period ended the Stingers added two more goals from centre Kyle Armstrong and captain George Lovatsis, with the goals coming within a minute of one another.
Both teams traded goals twice in the second period. Both times Brock scored, Concordia answered within a minute, never allowing the Badgers team to get any momentum going. Lovatsis scored his second of the night, while newcomer Gabriel Bourret scored his first goal as a Stinger before the period ended.
The night of firsts continued early in the third, as left winger Francis Beauregard also scored his first goal in a Stingers jersey. Backup goaltender Paul Bourbeau took over for Antonio Mastropietro with 9:36 remaining, giving Mastropietro a chance to save his energy and start the next game less than 18 hours later. Both goalies put on solid performances, with Mastropietro stopping 23 of 25 shots, while Bourbeau stopped all six shots he faced.
Concordia finished their full 60-minute effort by scoring two more goals before the final buzzer. Left winger Taylor Lambke scored his seventh of the season, while Hinse scored his third of the game, completing his second hat trick of the season. Hinse now leads the Canadian Interuniversity Sports league with 13 goals in only 11 games. Hinse also leads the Stingers team in points, with 19 on the season so far.
Head coach Kevin Figsby said that even though he was happy with the win, he was even happier with the team’s effort.
“Tonight’s objective was to follow the game plan we put in place this week during practice. The game plan was not to worry about the outcome of tonight’s game, but to worry about the input of each player. Each player did that.”
Figsby commented on Hinse’s outstanding performance, saying it’s not just the 13 goals that have made him such a valuable and important player.
“He’s been playing fantastic hockey all season. He’s also been our best penalty killer, so either he’s scoring goals or killing penalties. It doesn’t get any better.”
Lovatsis mirrored the coach’s comments concerning the team’s complete effort.
“All lines were going tonight. It was good to see, and hopefully we can keep this going until Christmas and after.”
“Antonio was solid as usual, and it was good to get Paul in there. He did really well, and he made some nice saves. It was good to see that if we need Paul to go in there at any time that he’s up to the task,” said the team captain about the performance by both goalies.
