Stingers open with win, shootout loss

The Concordia Stingers men’s hockey team kicked off the season with a big win on Friday night, defeating cross-town rivals the McGill Redmen 2-1.
The Stingers showed off their brand new style of play within the first minute, throwing body checks that stifled every offensive attempt by a Redmen.
“It’s exactly how we wanted to start off our season,” said head coach Kevin Figsby. “We played really well within the game plan.”
The first period was scoreless but riddled with penalties, the majority of which forced Concordia to rely on their penalty kill which was solid throughout the game.
With just two minutes to go in the first period, veteran forward Mike Baslyk expertly read a play and intercepted the puck before firing it on goal, but it was quickly stifled by Redmen goalie Danny Mireault.
McGill took a penalty 7:26 into the second period, when right-winger Nicolas Lafontaine was rammed head-first into the boards. Lafontaine, visibly shaken, lay on the ice for several minutes before skating back to his bench unassisted. McGill defenceman Yan Turcotte was penalized two minutes for the check.
Concordia converted pain to pleasure when Baslyk capitalized on the power play, putting the Stingers up 1-0 going into the third. Rookies Michael Blundon and Nicolas D’Aoust earned the assists.
The Stingers put it all on the line in the third, as Lafontaine blocked a shot then took off on an odd-man rush, but he fired just wide of the net. Stingers goalie Maxime Joyal kept his team in the game when he stifled a 3-on-1 Redmen attempt, and later dove across the net to prevent another attempt. He couldn’t stop them all though, as McGill capitalized on a power play with just 6:44 left to go in the third, to even the score at 1-1.
Joyal flashed the leather on a quick glove save that kept Concordia in the game. With three minutes left to go, the Stingers made two fantastic tape-to-tape passes in the offensive zone. The puck came to rest on the blade of 6’4″ defenceman Blundon, who fired a slapshot. D’Aoust, standing bravely in front of the net, tipped the puck in for the winning goal.
“I saw the puck flying at me, and I just angled my stick to try and hit it. It changed direction and went in,” he said.
D’Aoust, a rookie, already has a sense of the long-standing rivalry the two teams have.
The game was really high tempo, and pretty intense. It didn’t take me long to figure out,” he laughed.
The Stingers had their home opener Saturday, against the Carleton Ravens. Concordia lost 4-3 in a tense game that went into a shootout.
Right-winger Nicolas Sciangula scored late into the first, flying in on the left wing. His original shot hit the Ravens’ goalie Alexander Archibald and landed in the slot, but Sciangula picked up his own rebound and fired it home.
Centre Mike Baslyk put the Stingers up 2-0 early in the third, when he too capitalized on a bad rebound from Archibald.
Carleton was quick to even the score, potting two goals exactly three minutes apart.
With just under 10 minutes left in the third, Stingers captain Simon-Pierre Sauvé knuckleballed the puck from the right wing, making the score 3-2. Linemates Marc-André Element and Renaud Des Alliers set up the nifty goal.
The lead was short lived, as the Ravens tied it up again just a minute later.
Overtime ticked by without a goal, and the game when into a shootout with Ravens forward Brandon Maclean scoring the only goal.
The Stingers hit the road for a few weeks, but return home on Oct. 26 to take on the Ottawa Gee-Gees at 3:00 p.m. The team is also organizing a food drive, and encourages all fans to bring a can of non-perishable goods to home games. All items will be donated to local food banks.