D’Amico destroys Ontario visitors

Led by captain Joey D’Amico, the Concordia Stingers men’s hockey team embarrassed the Ryerson Rams at Ed Meagher Arena on Saturday. The 8-2 final capped off an extremely successful homestand, which included a 10-3 clobbering of the Toronto Varsity Blues the night before.

The Stingers hit the Rams early and often. By the time the dust settled, D’Amico led the team with four goals, while linemate Frederic Faucher had a goal and two assists. “Pretty good night tonight. I’ve never had a four goal game in my career,” D’Amico said.

D’Amico’s first goal came at 15:37 in the first, barely getting a piece of a Michael Halitzki one-timer pass. His other three goals came in the second. At 10:12, he beat Rams’ goalie Joel Schriver with a quick snapshot coming down the left side. His next goal was truly one for the highlight reel, beating the helpless goalie on a short-handed breakaway with an impressive deke low stick side. “The guys always bug me that I always go for the shot top corner, so I told myself I’d try something different, and it worked.” D’Amico said.

His fourth goal came on a two-on-one, and put the game further out of reach at 7-1. “He (D’Amico) showed you today what its’ all about, being a leader on the team,” coach Kevin Figsby said.

This weekend’s offensive explosion by the Stingers came as no surprise to coach Figsby, who has been impressed by the team’s play all season, “We’ve played consistent hockey since the beginning of the year, and we knew if we just stayed consistent with (our) work ethic things would happen.”

The Stingers dominated at both ends of the ice. They pummelled Rams goalie Joel Schriver with 29 shots in the first two periods, which yielded 7 goals. Backup netminder Alex Turgeon-Cote replaced him to start the third. The Stingers were also the more disciplined team, having only 16 total penalty minutes, as opposed to the Rams’ 42.

Thanks to some stingy defence by the Stingers young blueliners, goalie Patrick Lepage had a relatively quiet evening, facing only 18 shots. He was sharp when called upon, stopping Ram skater Grant Buckley on a breakaway in the first period. Number one goalie Trevor Cunning started the prior two games.

Defenceman Patrice Theriault left the game in the third period. He had been playing hurt, and coach Figsby wanted to rest him since the game was decided at that point. He had been playing upwards of 28 minutes a game this season, and coach Figsby called him, “one of the top three defencemen in the CIS.”

Forward Luc Messier missed the game with a leg injury, but will be back next week.

Related Posts