Anthony Deluca’s hat-trick propelled Concordia’s men’s hockey team to its fifth straight win
The Concordia Stingers men’s hockey team continued their phenomenal start to the season with a 7-3 win against the Laurentian Voyageurs at home on Nov. 4. Forward Anthony Deluca’s three goals helped improve the Stingers record to 7-1, while extending their win streak to five games.
“I’m really happy that we’ve had a good start, but we can’t stop,” Stingers head coach Marc-André Élement said. “Right now, we have good team chemistry and the guys are working hard.”
The first period was not ideal for either team. It was stagnate with little scoring chances created and poor neutral zone play. The Stingers tried to exploit their opponents with speed and long stretch passes.
The Voyageurs replied with physical strength, which caught the Stingers off guard, according to forward and team captain Olivier Hinse. But Hinse said his team was ready to challenge them physically.
“We’re not big, but we can play the physical game too. We’re not afraid of that,” he said.
The game remained goalless until midway through the second period, when Stingers forward Philippe Hudon took a boarding penalty. Ten seconds into the ensuing power play, the Voyageurs opened the scoring with a shot from the blue line.
Less than 90 seconds later, the Stingers responded with their own power play goal. Forward Philippe Sanche picked up a rebound off a shot from Hinse and found the back of the net.
The Voyageurs scored 30 seconds later, before Deluca tied it up again just nine seconds after that. The speedy winger broke into the offensive zone on the right wing and fired a shot short side past Voyageurs goaltender Charlie Millen.
Just 22 seconds after Deluca’s highlight-reel goal, Stingers forward Charles-Eric Légaré joined an odd-man rush and pounced on a loose puck for the fifth goal in just two and a half minutes. The goal gave the Stingers a 3-2 lead.
Although Élement was not happy with the two goals against, he admits he was pleased with his team’s ability to respond to such big swings in momentum.
“It was weird,” Élement said. “We showed a lot of character, we got scored on, we scored right away. We were positive, and we just kept working hard so the results showed on the scoreboard.”
The Voyageurs tied it at 3-3 three minutes later, but the Stingers pulled ahead with two late-period goals. Légaré scored his second goal, while Deluca scored his team-leading sixth goal of the season.
The Stingers built on their 5-3 lead by scoring two more in the third. Deluca scored his hat-trick goal like his other two goals, from the right wing, while Hinse used his speed and strength to get by the defence and beat the goalie alone.
Despite scoring three goals, Deluca admitted he needed extra motivation to kick-start his game.
“I didn’t feel like I was going to have a good game. I guess it was really the other team that started chirping me and they got me into the game,” Deluca said. “I guess they kind of woke me up, so thanks to them.”
His head coach also noticed his slow start, but praised Deluca after all was said and done.
“He had a tough first period, and then he just stepped it up,” Élement said.
The Stingers played the following night against the Ottawa Gee-Gees and lost 2-1. They now have a record of 7-2.
