The Concordia Stingers were looking for their third win of the season as they faced the Waterloo Warriors last Saturday afternoon, but fell 5-2 in their Ed Meagher Arena home opener.
After a 90 minute delay due to equipment problems, both teams started off well. The first of the game’s many penalties came four minutes in as Stinger Adam Nugent Hopkins was sent to the box.
Not even two minutes later, Stingers goaltender Antonio Mastropietro was called for roughing, which was served by Stingers’ left winger Danny Potvin. Concordia managed to kill both penalties but with 10 minutes remaining Stingers’ defenseman Marley Keca was called for cross-checking.
With eight minutes left in the first period, left winger Taylor Lambke got Concordia on the board when he fired a shot past Warriors goaltender, Justin Leclerc. Concordia was up 1-0 for the remainder of the period as the Stingers were getting solid play from their defense and goaltending.
In the second period, both teams played very physical with each team giving out solid hits. Not even one minute into the second, things got ugly as Warriors forward Anthony Tapper gave an elbow to the head of Stingers forward Charles-Alexandre Plaisir. He received a two and 10 minute misconduct. The hit sparked a scrum between three players: Potvin and Warriors’ forwards Kain Allicock and Josh Woolley. All three players were assessed roughing on the play.
Nine minutes later, the Stingers got into more penalty trouble when defenseman Sean Blunden was called for tripping. This penalty proved costly as Waterloo capitalized and scored the equalizer when forward Justin Larson took a pass from forward Chris Chappell and got the puck past Mastropietro.
The Stingers began the third period on the power play and capitalized on the opportunity. Centre Kyle Armstrong got a breakaway pass from right winger Ben Dubois and got a shot past the Warriors goaltender, giving the Stingers a 2-1 lead.
The Stingers’ got into some penalty trouble as centre George Lovatsis was called for hooking and the Warriors’ defenseman Stephen Silas got a power play goal to tie the game at two each.
The Waterloo Warriors kept attacking and Concordia seemed to lose their edge in the game, as four minutes after they scored, the Warriors got another goal from Chappell, giving them a 2-1 lead.
That goal seemed to drain the Stingers as Waterloo kept coming strong and playing both solid defense and offense. Two minutes later, Waterloo defenseman Greg Steffes was called for hooking and Concordia went back on the power play. The Stingers once again failed to capitalize on the man advantage.
At the eight minute mark of the third period, Waterloo got on the board again Chappell got his hat trick to make it 4-2 Waterloo. Chappell would soon make it 5-2 Waterloo.
Stingers’ head coach Kevin Figsby was disappointed with his team performance.
“We played a solid 40 minutes today and a disappointing third,” he said. “It’s hard when you don’t have your top defenseman (in) Youssef Kabbaj and one of your top forwards (in) Jessyco Bernard and I felt we were watching the third, not playing.”
“We played a solid 40 minutes and a tough third we didn’t have any momentum and it’s a game we wanted to win,” said Lambke.
