The Concordia men’s hockey team hung around a lot longer than they should have in their 3-1 loss to Ottawa last Friday night at Ed Meagher Arena.
The Stingers, after losing their season opener last week, continued to struggle offensively with a couple of their big names still out of the line-up.
Ottawa set the pace early and rarely let up as they delivered a thorough shellacking, out-shooting Concordia 43-19 in the game.
Stinger goaltender Philippe Ozga kept his team in the game early by making one acrobatic save by sprawling across from one side of the crease to the other.
But Ottawa would find a way to solve Ozga as forward Mike Corneau opened the scoring off of a partial breakaway at 8:38 of the first period.
Corneau made it 1-0 after the Gee Gee’s came in on a 3-2 rush faster then the defence could react to when Jean-Luc Martin gave out a short pass just over the blue line and swooped in to beat Ozga’s glove side.
Ottawa nearly added another goal about a minute later after a nice pass in front of the net caused a scuffle that resulted in a roughing penalty to defenceman Philippe Parent.
Thankfully, Ozga was able to keep the Stingers close as the period ended with Ottawa leading 1-0.
The second period provided an preview for Ottawa’s game-plan as they were dominant in working the puck around the net and getting chances from the point.
Although Ozga was peppered with 19 shots in the second period and endured three power plays, Concordia escaped the period trailing only 1-0.
Concordia finally showed signs of life in the third as a 3-2 rush provided the Stingers with a great passing play, ending with Philippe Paris taking a mid-range blast past Ottawa goaltender Mathieu Blanchard.
The Gee-Gees quickly bounced back four minutes later when Martin got his second point of the night with what would turn out to be the game winning goal.
Ottawa then added some insurance with less than seven minutes remaining in the game when Hugo Giguere made it 3-1 for the Gee-Gees.
In a desperate last minute attempt, the Stingers pulled Ozga to add some extra pressure but was fruitless as the team dropped their home-opener 3-1.
“We took some very bad penalties which took the flow away from our game,” disappointed Stinger Coach Kevin Figsby said after the game.
“It’s just a lack of effort on the part of some of our veteran hockey players.”
Centreman Chris Page was also frustrated with his team’s performance.
“We didn’t skate hard and play with enough intensity,” he said.
“After the first win hopefully we’ll be able to get on a roll.”
