The Concordia Stingers continued experiencing growing pains on Sunday afternoon as they lost 4-3 against the Carleton Ravens in Ottawa.
First-year forward Melanie Bibb stole the puck from a Concordia defenseman, and finished off the breakaway by beating Stingers goaltender Meggy Hatin-Leveillee with 8:45 remaining in the third period. The goal, Bibb’s second, clinched the first ever regular season victory for the Ravens.
The first period opened fast and furious, with the pace the highest it had been for the Stingers this season, and chances coming for both teams.
Blue-liner Rose Healy had a great game. She scored two goals, including the first goal of the game with 50.3 seconds left in the first period. Bianca Chartrand forechecked and picked up the loose puck and sent it to Healy inside the blue line who fired it five-hole on Valerie Charbonneau.
Carleton answered in the second with goals from Bibb and Jennifer Slewidge to take a 2-1 advantage. Slewidge picked up a loose puck that got by a Stingers defender and broke in all alone on Hatin-Leveillee. Concordia responded and tied the game back up when Donna Ringrose scored as she picked up the loose puck in the slot and beat Charbonneau.
Concordia took the lead for the second time early in the third when, under three minutes into the frame, Healy took a shot that deflected off the stick of a Raven defender and hit the top part of the net.
Later in the third, the Ravens got the tying goal from Alexandra Palm and the winner from Bimm off of a turnover.
The Stingers had a 6-on-3 advantage with 7.4 seconds remaining, but lost the face-off, and time ran out on the Carleton clearing attempt.
“The little things you don’t do will come back to haunt you,” said Concordia head coach Les Lawton, in his 24th season with the team.
“We had a good first period and really dictated the play, but we played the game with very little passion and emotion,” he continued.
The Stingers dominated the shots in the first two periods, bringing a 22-11 advantage into the third. Concordia was outshot 12-4 in the final frame.
“They got a little momentum in the third, and we started taking stupid penalties,” Lawton said.
“We’ll get better as the season progresses but I think we took a step back today as we showed a lack of team play a lack of emotional play,” he said.
“They scored two breakaway goals, we made young mistakes,” Lawton continued. “We want them to be in a frame of mind where they are not afraid to make mistakes,” he said.
The specialty teams seem to be struggling to come around for the Stingers, but Lawton said that there are other things that they need to develop first with such a young team, and that “offence is the last thing to come,” he said.