If hockey games were 20 minutes long, the Stingers would be nearly unbeatable. Friday night’s 7-2 loss to McGill, and Sunday’s 5-3 loss to UQTR both started with stellar first frame play.
Conference rival McGill (who were ranked fifth in the country last week) were held scoreless after one period as the Stingers high intensity staved off the defending OUA East champions. “Before the game, every guy stood up and said what they were going to accomplish tonight,” said Concordia head coach Kevin Figsby after Friday night’s match. “But after 20 minutes, they forgot that commitment. We need to play a full 60 minutes like we did that first period.”
Figsby’s main concern Friday was the other end of the special teams, the penalty kill. The Stingers were taking obstruction penalties they really couldn’t afford, and allowed McGill to score four power play goals.
Concordia’s captain, Trevor Hawkins, was playing his second game back after an injury sustained earlier in the season against Ryerson, courtesy of a hit from behind. Back with his regular defence partner, assistant captain Ronnie Smith, Hawkins was battling hard.
One hitch however, was that his partner on the power play, rookie Jesse Goodsell was still in the stands serving a suspension. The power play suffered from the loss and Figsby pointed to the team “over-handling the puck. Our passing patterns go with each team we play, but we weren’t getting the shots away.” The Stingers failed to score on two lengthy two-man advantages. “We worked on the power play all week,” added Figsby.
“We can’t have a bad period, can’t give up soft goals, and can’t have mental lapses. Our biggest weakness [on Friday] was the penalty kill. And we made some great passes on the power play, but we need to start getting the shots on net.”
Figsby has his work cut out for him with his line combinations with all the new additions to the Concordia roster. He has been pairing rookie defender Alex Ward with veteran Justin Ciampini. With Ward at 6-foot-6 and Ciampini at 6-foot-5 Figsby hopes they’ll be a force to reckon with.
Trevor Blanchard, the team’s leading scorer was given a 10-minute misconduct halfway through the first period on Friday causing Figsby to juggle his lines a little. Blanchard had been playing with his line-mates from last season, Mike Baslyk and Marc-Andr
