Concordia men beaten badly by McGill

There’s nothing better than a good old hard hitting rivalry to start off the second half of the season, as was the case with the Concordia men’s hockey team taking on the McGill Redmen this past Sunday at the Ed Meagher Arena.
Adding to the excitement was the pre-game sweater retirement of former MVP Concordia goaltender Jim Corsi.
An on ice ceremony gave Corsi the opportunity to thank those within the University who helped in his success.
Unfortunately for the Stingers, who were playing in front of their biggest home crowd of the season, McGill didn’t seem to care about the Concordia alumni in attendance or the day’s celebration as they routed the home team 8-5.
Concordia got the game’s first goal from Sean Tilley about 4 minutes in, but McGill stormed back scoring three goals in less than three minutes, including two on the power play.
This would only be a sign of the debacle that would follow as McGill took a commanding 3-1 lead into the second period.
Once again it was the Redmen taking it to the Stingers in the period’s first ten minutes as they rang up three more goals in that span.
This included yet another power play goal in the first minute that came after Stinger centre Wesley Scanzano took a crosschecking penalty at the end of the previous period.
McGill’s Paul Theriault notched his second goal of the game as part of a five-point performance.
One minute later Mark Debusschere continued the goal parade with McGill’s fourth straight power play marker, making the score 6-1.
The Stingers finally snapped the Redmen’s goal-run when Philippe Parent took advantage of a rare second chance opportunity and skated in front of the net where lifted a backhand past the McGill goalie.
But less than three minutes later, the Redmen erased Parent’s effort with another power play goal on a two man advantage which left the Maroon and Gold trailing by a presumably insurmountable 7-2 disadvantage going into the final frame.
With the net getting a little full of pucks there wasn’t enough room left for Concordia goalie Philippe Ozga, who was replaced by Chris Wilcox to start the third.
McGill nevertheless managed yet another goal early in that period before all that aggression finally produced what all the kiddies had been hoping for.
Concordia’s Shawn Scanzano and McGill’s Adam Shell dropped their gloves threw some punches and got some much needed roughhousing out of the way.
They also both received game misconducts for the tussle.
After being manhandled for almost 45 minutes, the Stingers would finally give their fans something to get excited about as Derek Legault, playing his first game as a Stinger, and veteran David Comeau scored 28 seconds apart.
Then one minute later, Legault would get his second to cut the lead to 8-5, but that was as close as they would get.
Receiving 45 minutes in penalties and giving up six power play goals made discipline a major topic of conversation amongst the Stingers after the game.
“What you saw out there was a team that didn’t have a lot of gel,” Head Coach Kevin Figsby said.
“When you’re killing penalties for the first 40 minutes of the game it’s going to take something out of you.”
Ozga was also frustrated with his team’s lack of composure.
“We didn’t even play close to our potential,” he said. “Everyone included didn’t show up today.”
Things won’t get any easier for the Stingers as they take on division leading UQTR on Wednesday.