The University of British Columbia Thunderbirds entered the contest as two-time CUMRC defending champions, and the first-ranked team of the tournament. The Vikes and Thunderbirds knew each other well, as the teams battle often in British Columbia.
The game started well for the Thunderbirds, as they scored two tries and 12 points in the first 15 minutes. However, the Vikes answered with 14 points in four minutes at the end of the first half to take the lead at halftime.
Thunderbirds head coach Curry Hitchborn said at halftime, he told his players they needed to settle down.
“They needed to relax,” Hitchborn said. “I told them the Vikes were there to play, and were going to test us. [They had] to stick to what they knew, keep it simple and not make it hard on ourselves. We did the complete opposite at times.”
The second half offered tight plays from start to finish. After the Thunderbirds scored three points on a penalty kick, teams exchanged tries.
At 21-20 Vikes in additional time, the Thunderbirds had the game’s destiny in their hands. They scored a try in additional time and had to convert for two points. A successful kick meant a win, and missed one meant a Vikes victory.
Wow what a final. Credit to both @uvicvikes and @UBCRugby for their ambition to play exciting rugby. All players and staff are a credit to @bcrugbyunion 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻. Great to see recognition for Dave Brown from UBC. Also good to see Doug to win his last championship pic.twitter.com/nU3wOAUhEo
Vikes head coach Doug Tate said it’s good his team didn’t panic when they were down by 12 points.
“I think we closed the space, Tate said. “They are big runners, so if you get them off their feet, [it helps]. When we had chances to score, we did it. We didn’t give them many chances, as we were very aggressive defensively. We got a few bounces our way today, as they were close [to tying] the game.”
Tate said that being champions feels good for the Vikes. He said that victory feels more special than usual because of the history between the teams.
“I think we didn’t beat them in five years. Some of these guys have been with the Vikes for four or five years, and had never won against the Thunderbirds. For them, to beat that team in the CUMRC final is pretty special.”
On his side, Hitchborn gave a lot of credit to the Vikes. He said they came to play, and offered a massive effort.
“That was the best I’ve ever seen them play in years,” Hitchborn said. “They were everything a championship team needed to be. We play each other so often. It’s really great to see guys on both sides rise to the occasion like they did. It was a brilliant game for them.”
“You miss 100 per cent of the shots you don’t take. – Wayne Gretzky”
– Michael Scott
Despite the obvious cliché, the best way to win hockey games is to get pucks on net. The Concordia Stingers women’s hockey team is currently the top-ranked team in U Sports, and one of the biggest reasons has been the team’s ability to generate high-quality shots, without sacrificing any defensive intensity.
In nine games so far this season, the team is averaging 34 shots per game, and have scored 30 goals. On the defensive side of the ice, they’ve only allowed 26.56 shots per game. While some teams play above expectations due to ballooned shooting percentages, the Stingers have a team shooting percentage of 9.8 per cent, an extremely sustainable rate. Their 3.33 goals per game is tied for first in all of U Sports. It’s not surprising that they’ve only been outshot twice all season, against the University of Ottawa on Nov. 17 and on Nov. 24 against McGill. The Stingers won both of those games.
This season, I’ve been tracking shots (for and against) for seven out of the team’s first nine games of the season (only games I’ve missed have been the ones where the team travels to Ottawa to play Carleton and U of O). As this team keeps playing games, patterns start emerging.
The big one being that the Stingers love to shoot in close. From the team’s 309 shots, 26.5 per cent have come from within five feet of the net. The team succeeds when it’s able to control the puck around the net, crash the crease and generate rebounds. In the team’s first game against McGill, the shots were scattered with no real concentration. On Nov. 10, the Stingers played Montreal, one of the top teams in the country. They managed to control play around the net, and that led to 15 shots from the crease, and the Stingers shutout the Carabins 4-0. Their only loss of the season, a 3-2 shootout loss to Carleton, was largely due to defensive lapses and a hot opposing goalie that made 45 saves.
“For us, the best areas to be able to score goals is net-front, within the dots, up to the top of the circles,” said head coach Julie Chu after her team’s weekly Wednesday skills practice. “I think that’s a really big emphasis for ourselves. To not only be an exterior team moving the puck, but we have to get to the net. And with the goalies we play against, they’re talented, so if we only stay on the exterior and only take shots from there, they’re easy saves. We’re focusing a lot on getting to the net and trying to create traffic and winning net-front battles as much as we can.”
With all of the talent that Chu has managed to recruit to the Stingers since becoming the team’s head coach in the summer of 2016, it shouldn’t be a surprise that they’ve emerged as the top team in the country, and were named the number one ranked team in U Sports for five weeks in a row at the time of publication. Players like Audrey Belzile, Rosalie Bégin-Cyr, Emmy Fecteau and Claudia Dubois have shown that they’re not only capable of generating high quality chances basically at will, but also spreading the offence to other players. Add high-end players like Olivia Atkinson, Marie-Pascale Bernier and Brigitte Lagnagniere, and you see why teams have struggled to slow down the Stingers.
Photo by Cecilia Piga
“What’s fun is that we have a lot of talented players with a lot of skill,” said Chu. “That increases our opportunities to be threats on the ice. When you only have one player that really has a tremendous shot, and the other [players] aren’t really threats, and you’re only trying to feed one person, it’s easy to eventually shut down attacks.”
With the most goals in the RSEQ so far this season, and peppering opposing goalies with endless high quality shots per game, they’re bound to tire any goalie out. It’s been their key to outlasting talented teams like McGill and Montreal. The Stingers are not only taking a lot of shots, but they’re managing to get the majority of those shots off in dangerous areas. Olympic pistol shooters and archers would be jealous of this kind of consistent placement.
On special teams, while the power-play struggled to start this season 一 only scoring four times on 37 power play chances 一 it’s improved as the season has gone on. Chu talked about how the team has been working on reading the play better and establishing that net-front presence that’s frustrated other RSEQ teams all year.
Graphic by Matthew Coyte
Looking at the scores, it would be easy to fixate on the Stingers offensive prowess, but they’ve been just as good on the defensive side of things. They’re the only team with a positive goal differential at +14. To see how good they are, just look at how they managed to shut out McGill and Montreal in back-to-back games. Goalie Alice Philbert has been a massive part of this success, but suppressing high-quality shots has become the Stinger M.O. lately. For Chu, all of that starts at the offensive end of the ice.
“When we have a good forecheck, the ability for the transition of the opposing team becomes less,” said Chu. “Or we might have extra numbers back, so they don’t have the ability to attack and get more 3-on-2’s. I think our forecheck has been really good, which is our first line of slowing down the offence of the opposing team. Secondly, in [our] zone, we work a lot on our defensive zone coverage, and we were just trying to find ways to smartly pressure.Being good with our sticks, being great with contact, those are going to help us hopefully keep our opponents to the exterior.”
Despite the team’s hot start to the season, Chu still says that there are “lots of different aspects” that she wants the team to focus on. Most of all, the team’s breakouts.
“The consistency of our breakout is always something that’s huge,” said Chu. “In the same way that we say our forecheck 200-feet away from our net is really important in the defensive side of our game, our breakout is huge in our ability to create offense. Our ability to shut down the opponent, be able to turn the puck, make the right reads and get momentum and energy up the ice with numbers is really important.”
When the Concordia Stingers football team recruited wide receiver Jeremy Murphy, they were confident they were getting something good. But, they couldn’t have guessed at the time how much of an impact Murphy would have in his first season.
“I thought Murphy was a very good receiver in college, and that he could bring that talent to the university level,” said head coach Brad Collinson. “He exceeded our expectations. To do what he did in his first year is rare. I knew he had it in him. I just didn’t know he would show it this year.”
Murphy comes from the Collège Champlain-St-Lambert Cavaliers where he played in the Réseau du Sport Étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) division 3. Murphy was named the rookie of the year in his first season there in 2016, as well as being named to the offensive all-star team. Last year, he was named the best offensive player and was once again on the offensive all-star team.
In his first season with the Stingers, the Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville native caught 34 passes for 491 yards. He also scored four touchdowns in eight games, which ranked him first of all RSEQ receivers. Murphy said his first season with the Stingers was a blast.
“It was a great experience, especially for a first-year player like myself,” Murphy said. “I learned many things, on and off the field, about being on time, my occupations, school and others. On the field, you learn just by the way you listen to your coach, and then apply the instructions.”
It was clear after their first game of the season against the Carabins de Montréal that Murphy would become a staple in the Stingers offence. People around the team knew that veteran James Tyrell would be the number one receiver, so it was up to the rest of the receiving corps to prove their worth – Murphy had an instant impact.
Collinson thought Murphy developed well in his first year with the Stingers, and showed he was one of the best freshmen in the league. He said Murphy is a competitor who trusts his abilities, which explains why he had success.
“I think he became a better route runner,” Collinson said. “He always had great chances as a receiver, which is key. Those are really things we enjoyed [from] him this year. Football’s very important to him. He enjoys the sport, and that passion transferred to how he played on the field.”
Murphy’s statistics allowed him to be named the RSEQ rookie of the year earlier this month. The wide receiver said he’s happy to receive such a reward.
“Obviously I wanted to win the RSEQ rookie of the year, but it wasn’t part of my expectations [entering the season],” Murphy said. “I was just trying to make my name known, and create a spot on the team for myself, nothing more than that.”
In addition to the RSEQ rookie of the year, Murphy was named the most outstanding rookie in Canadian university football last week, a first for a Stingers player since Liam Mahoney in 2007.
Collinson said the team won’t change its coaching because of how Murphy performed in his first year. He explained that everyone will start over again next season and progress at their rhythm.
“It’s not going to put pressure on [Murphy],” Collinson said. “We just want him to have a good season, and continue to develop and trust the process we coach here at Concordia. If he does that, good things will happen.”
Pressure or not, Murphy will be a player to watch in 2020-21. Teams now know what he’s capable of, and will try to limit his production when they play against him and the Stingers.
With a new quarterback next season, as veteran Adam Vance completes his fifth and final season with the team in 2019-20, players might have an adjustment period entering the new season.
However, some of the team’s wide receivers were also playing their last season, which could put Murphy into a bigger role in 2020-21, and allow him to continue on where he left last year.
Murphy said the goal for him is just to continue developing his game and what he’s been working on since joining the team last season.
“For me, it’s just to improve on what I’ve already created,” Murphy said. “As a team, we just have to win more than we did this year, and push it to the second round of the playoffs.”
Feature photo by Kyran Thicke / Concordia Stingers
During week 11’s Thursday Night Football game, an ugly incident happened in the dying moments of the game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Cleveland Browns.
Mason Rudolph was hit by Myles Garrett after he threw a pass. Rudolph was pissed and went after Garrett, tugging on his face mask. Garrett responded by removing Rudolph’s helmet and hitting him in the head with it. If you haven’t seen the video by now, take a look at it. It’s pretty frightening.
Garrett was subsequently suspended indefinitely by the NFL. He appealed the suspension but it was quickly upheld.
In an investigation of the incident, Garrett insisted that Rudolph called him a racial slur which sparked the entire thing in the first place. This claim came about a week after the initial helmet-swinging brawl.
The NFL responded by saying that they found “no such evidence” that supported Garrett’s claim.
I’m going to say this before I give my opinion on the whole situation: I am very well aware that I, a white male, am about to give an opinion on something race-related.
Now that that’s out of the way, let’s think critically about this for a second before calling Rudolph a racist.
The NFL mic’s up every quarterback in the league during games to acquire audio for NFL Films purposes. So if Rudolph did in fact utter a racial slur at Garrett, they would be able to track down that audio right away. Garrett said “I know what I heard,” so if he is telling the truth, this is a major problem not only for Rudolph, but the NFL as well; it would seem like they were trying to cover it up
The second part that raises my suspicion of this story is the fact that Garrett came out with this accusation about a week after the incident. What was the thought process here? In my experience as a Jew, if I was faced with any type of anti-semetic comment, I wouldn’t wait a week before telling the world what happened. The second a microphone was placed in front of my face, it would be the first thing that left my mouth.
No one can say for sure what was said between Rudolph and Garrett. Maybe Rudolph did say something. Maybe Garrett is lying. Or maybe Garrett misheard Rudolph.
I won’t come out and call Garrett a liar, but let’s pump the breaks on calling Rudolph a racist for something we aren’t 100 per cent sure he said.
The Concordia Stingers men’s rugby team lost its Canadian University Men’s Rugby Championship (CUMRC) bronze medal game 31-22 against the Queen’s University Gaels on Sunday morning, which concluded the team’s 2019-20 season.
The Stingers never managed to be in control of the game, as the Gaels took an early lead in the first half and never looked back.
Stingers head coach Craig Beemer said he wishes his players left the field with a better result after the effort they put and the season they had.
“I’m definitely not a participation guy,” Beemer said. “Our goal was the medal, so we didn’t meet our goal. I think you saw on Friday night, as well as in today’s second half, we have earned the right to have a medal, but it just didn’t happen for us today.”
Despite being a unique and great experience for the teams, the CUMRC still has challenges. Beemer said it was tough to go from one game a week, like the team is used to during its regular Réseau du Sport Étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) season, to three games in five days.
That’s where you see the blood, sweat and tears,” Beemer said. “These guys put in so many hours as student-athletes. When the coaching staff and I ask them to do things, I think that’s the toughest part [since they already put in so much time and always give their best effort].”
The Stingers gained some momentum late in the second half, scoring two consecutive tries for the first time of the game. Unfortunately for them, time ran out shortly thereafter. Beemer said having good starts is essential in a tournament like this one, and gave credit to the Gaels for their performance.
“Hats off to the Gaels,” said Beemer. “They played really well, and scored tries when they needed to. Our defence put theirs under a lot of pressure, but they responded really well. They were the better team today.”
Hooker Michael Laplaine-Pereira, who scored the Stingers’s consecutive tries in the second half and was named the Stingers most valuable player of the game, said despite the loss, the team is still happy with their season.
“We developed strong connections between the boys,” Laplaine-Pereira said. “It’s a life experience. We knew it would end at some point this week, and had to give everything we had today. We put everything we did this whole season on the line.”
Laplaine-Pereira said in events like that, where teams face injuries and challenges, the most important thing is to remain in good spirits.
“We’re not just leaving with a loss today,” Laplaine-Pereira said. “We’re leaving with a family, and connections that will stay for a long time.”
The Stingers officially conclude the CUMRC in fourth place, the same position they finished last year when they lost to the University of Victoria Vikes in the bronze medal game.
After losing on Friday night to the last-placed Carleton Ravens, you might think the Stingers women’s hockey team’s morale would be down.
Apparently not.
The Stingers rebounded from Friday’s loss to beat the fifth-ranked McGill Martlets 2-1 at McGill’s McConnell Arena thanks to goals from rookies Emmy Fecteau and Léonie Philbert.
Fecteau opened the scoring on the first shot of the game when she walked into the Martlets zone and ripped a wrister from the slot past McGill goalie Tricia Deguire. Léonie doubled the Stingers lead after burying a rebound short side on a first period power play. Deguire would finish the game with 24 saves.
“We were bummed after [Friday’s] game,” said head coach Julie Chu after the win. “No one likes to lose. In the locker room, they were taking it hard, but we said ‘it’s okay, taste the bitterness and bottle it up, and don’t let it discourage you, let it fuel [you].’It was awesome to see how our team came out in the first period.”
From there, things got a little tougher.
McGill came flying out of the gate in the second period, outshooting the Stingers 18-10. Stingers goalie Alice Philbert, after being given a rest on Friday, was forced to make some key saves, including a stretching toe save on a McGill 2-on-1. Alice would finish the game with 31 stops, and improve to 8-0 on the season. Alice currently leads the RSEQ with a 1.55 GAA and is second in save percentage with a .940 (Deguire leads the division with a .941).
The Stingers had to rely on their goaltending, shot blocking, and a quick stick check here and there to keep McGill from tying the game during their second period onslaught.
“We survived the second period,” said Chu. “We’re not delusional. The first ten minutes of the second, McGill really did a good job buzzing in our defensive job and we didn’t do a good job tracking and winning our one-on-one battles. They were on our heels.”
Lea Dumais would cut into the Stingers lead with a deflection that snuck by Philbert halfway through the second period, but that would be McGill’s only goal as the Stingers would throw everything at the Martlets in the defensive end.
The Stingers wouldn’t be as dangerous as they were in the first period, but when it mattered, they managed to frustrate the Martlets. With only a few minutes left in the third period, the Stingers were able to control the puck down low in the Martlet zone, killing precious time.
“This team is awesome,” said Chu. “They find a way. We’re still figuring out what our character is as we go into new situations. I like what I saw today.”
The Stingers will play the Carleton Ravens in Ottawa on Dec. 1
Notes:
I complained on Nov. 1 that not enough arenas have distinct features after the Stingers played the Carabins at CEPSUM. Turns out I forgot about McGill’s McConnell Arena and the visiting team’s upstairs dressing room. Teams have to climb up and down stairs to get from the ice to the room. Incredible design.
Feature photo by Cecilia Piga. Graphic by Matthew Coyte.
Despite the loss, the Stingers left Concordia Stadium with pride. They brought their best on the field, and forced the Thunderbirds to do the same. Head coach Craig Beemer said he’s really happy with the effort and performance his team offered. He explained that the Stingers couldn’t have done much more.
“I told someone, which was a little bit cliché, but David [versus Goliath] doesn’t always win,” Beemer said. “I like the fact we just competed the entire game. I don’t really think about X’s and O’s right now. It feels like maybe we should have won, but it doesn’t work that way.”
The Thunderbirds scored the first 12 points of the game which were the only points scored in the first half. However, that was the biggest lead the game saw, as the Stingers pushed back in the second half and even took a 13-12 lead at one point. Beemer said his team was really motivated at halftime.
🐝🏉 MR – #CUMRC – Aidan McMullan misses a penalty kick to the right but Thomas Goetz alertly jumps on the loose ball and scores for Concordia. Following a successful convert Concordia cuts UBC’s lead to 12-10 early in the second half. #CUstingers#CUrugby#Montrealpic.twitter.com/cB8oeJjoO0
“We were looking at that game thinking we could win,” Beemer said. “There’s no question in the heart my team has. We didn’t back down, and in a lot of ways we took it to them in the second half. It was just a great team effort of heart and determination at 100 per cent.”
In the last minutes of the second half, the Thunderbirds added three points on a penalty kick. The Stingers would afterwards score a try in additional time, but it was too late.
The Stingers battle for bronze against the Queen’s University Gaels in their final game of the year on Sunday. The game starts at 10:30 a.m. at Concordia Stadium.
The Concordia Stingers women’s hockey team’s seven-game win streak wasn’t ended by either of their nationally-ranked cross-town rivals at McGill or Montreal. Rather, it came to an end against the now 2-5 Carleton Ravens in a 3-2 shootout loss.
Despite putting 47 shots on net, the Stingers were unable to beat Ravens rookie Marie-Eve Cote, who put on one of the best goaltender performances in the RSEQ so far this year. In net for the Stingers, second-year Madison Oakes made her first ever start for the team.
“We have a good goaltender group, and Alice has played a lot of minutes,” said Chu. “It’s time to get some other goaltenders experience too. I think that’s just a smart thing for us to do. Madi’s done a good job, this month especially at practice, and deserved the start.”
“We just needed to poke in a couple more there.”
If you just happened to stumble into the Ed Meagher Arena on this Friday night to watch this game, with no knowledge of either goaltender, you probably would have noticed that Cote was lights out as a rookie and that Oakes made more than a couple nice puck plays under pressure. Unfortunately for Oakes, her debut was spoiled by the Ravens.
“I think [Cote] made some tremendous saves,” said head coach Julie Chu after the loss. “They’re a good, hardworking team. They’ve had close games against pretty much everyone all season long, gone into overtime, shootouts. It’s understandable, we knew it was going to be a battle of a game.”
Is it weird to say that a team that got 47 shots on net wasn’t able to generate consistent chances throughout the game? The Stingers shot totals were ballooned by the double-overtime, but for the first two periods of this game, they didn’t test Cote nearly enough. Add in an extremely lucky break where a Ravens shot from the corner seemed to beat Oakes and bounce out of the net, that wasn’t called a goal, and you could feel that the Stingers didn’t play their best game. Chu echoed this sentiment post-game.
“Me personally, I didn’t think we had a good enough net-front presence,” said Chu. “I thought that we had some chances on the rushes that we got to bury, but in zone, we got opportunities, our net-front wasn’t great. We got to be better, especially if a goaltender is playing well.”
The Stingers managed to break the scoreless game with six minutes left in the third period when captain Claudia Dubois tipped a wrister from the point from Brigitte Laganière. While Dubois’ stick looked like it may have been above the crossbar, the goal stood, sending Ravens head coach Pierre Alain into a rage. The Carleton coach would only get more exasperated when the Stingers widened the lead 18 seconds later thanks to a rocket from the slot from Emmy Fecteau. Dubois and Laganière would both finish the game with two points.
A Ravens’ body checking penalty shortly after that second goal, and a bench minor thanks to Alain slamming the bench’s door over and over again would give the Stingers a 5-on-3 power play.
Normally, this would be where the Stingers add another goal and seal the game.
Not this time.
The Stingers power play woes ー which seemed to have dissipated in the previous couple of games ー returned all at once during the 5-on-3. After not being able to generate any chances for the full two minutes, both Ravens players popped out of the box, promptly received the breakaway pass, and Megan Wilson slid the puck through the 5-hole of Oakes.
Two minutes later, the Ravens pulled Cote for the extra attacker and really started to bear down on the Stingers. On the first face-off after a time-out by the Ravens, it was Wilson again who tied the game, walking into the Stingers crease without being touched. Suddenly, we’re back in familiar territory for the Stingers – overtime.
It was in the subsequent two overtime periods that Cote truly earned her win, making stop after stop on high-quality chances. It was only fitting that this would be decided in a shootout.
“Even though they had the time and space, they couldn’t quite get [the puck in] there,” said Chu of the shootout attempts. “Sometimes it’s like that.”
Both Emmy Fecteau and Claudia Dubois couldn’t raise the puck over the right foot of Cote, and Oakes was beaten twice. Suddenly and abruptly the Stingers perfect start to the season came to a screeching halt.
For Chu, the solution is simple: score.
“Now for us, it’s just finding a way to put pucks away.”
The Stingers face the McGill Martlets Nov. 24 at McGill.
Notes:
Madison Oakes didn’t deserve this loss, it was just that Marie-Eve Cote earned it more. 45 saves against the top team in the country. Wow.
Eight games into the season, we’ve seen glimpses at what an elite power play this Stingers team might have, but so far, they’ve been objectively worse with the extra attacker so far this season. I imagine some scheme changes will be coming after the holiday break.
With eight teams in the tournament, the first-ranked team played the eighth-ranked team, the second-ranked team played the seventh, and so on.
The Stingers and Gryphons, fourth and fifth respectively, knew each other well, as they met last year for the previous edition of the CUMRC. The Stingers won that game 19-5.
Both teams had good scoring opportunities, however the Stingers’s defence played an almost perfect game, and helped the team win regardless of scoring just a single try and penalty kick. The try was scored by veteran Stephen Martinez in the first half.
Head coach Craig Beemer thought the Stingers were dominant in many aspects, but said the defence was really good.
“When [the offence] doesn’t score the points you need, and the game gets tight, you can get a crazy finish like that,” Beemer said. “Hats off to Guelph, they battled for the full 60 minutes, and really put us under pressure at the end.”
The decision to opt for a three-point penalty kick with 15 minutes left in the second half came from the game being a one score contest. Beemer said the opportunity was there, as the Stingers were aligned right between the posts in Gryphons’s territory.
“You want to automatically make it [a difference] of two scores,” Beemer said. “That came back right. In the second half, if you can advance it by another score or even more, then you take it.”
Stingers centre Aidan McMullan, who scored that penalty kick, said the experience of playing the CUMRC at home is awesome.
“We had the game at 6 p.m., so everyone could come after work,” said McMullan. “It’s awesome to have family and friends coming out, cheering you on, and supporting you through this whole season. Now, it’s finally this tournament, and we’re just going to keep on going.”
Stephen Martinez poses with Concordia’s athletics director, D’Arcy Ryan, after being named player of the game for the Stingers.
The Stingers will now play the two-time CUMRC defending champions University of British Columbia Thunderbirds in the semi-final on Friday. It’s the third time in as many years the two teams meet at the championship. Beemer said he likes his team’s chances.
“I like our players’ attitude right now,” Beemer said. “I think they believe in themselves. I like our attack. If you want to win gold, you have to beat the best team.”
The game starts at 2:30 p.m. at Concordia Stadium. The winner will play for gold at 1 p.m. on Sunday.
The Stingers football team’s season came to a close on Nov. 2 after a 40-8 RSEQ semi-finals loss to the Laval Rouge et Or.
It was a roller-coaster season for the team, who finished their regular season with a record of 2-6, but managed to squeeze into the playoffs. The team saw career-years from players like quarterback Adam Vance, wide receiver James Tyrrell and defensive back Khadeem Pierre. With those efforts Stingers managed to push perennially strong teams like the Université de Montreal Carabins to the edge in two close games. In those games, the team showed glimpses of a team that could be potential usurpers of what has been a historically top-heavy division.
On the other hand, this was the same team that gave up a 74-point shutout to Laval and got blown out by (an admittedly better) McGill squad. The rushing game struggled to find any footing until their playoff game, and the defense struggled at times to stop drives. The team had its issues, but some of the players were so exciting, that even in the losses, there were usually bright spots to look at.
With the 2019 football season having been wrapped for a couple of weeks now, it felt like a good time to sit down and look back on the season with second-year head coach Brad Collinson for a Q&A.
The team finished 2-6, but made the playoffs, what was your overall feeling about this season?
Overall, we took a step in the right direction. Are we there yet? No, far from it. But it’s a good step. We may have the same record as last year, but the culture and the atmosphere here is completely different than a year ago. One of our goals was to make playoffs and we attained that goal. Now the next goal is to win a playoff game. From there we’ll add another goal, then another. It’s a process, and like I’ve said from the beginning, we’re not going to skip any steps. It’s going to be one step at a time, but I think we took that first step.
Were there any players that stood out to you this season?
Jeremy Murphy as a rookie. I knew he was good. Did I expect him to have the year that he had? We always hope, but you never know. He stepped up. [Vance] and [Tyrrell] on offense, those guys had career-years. Being in your fifth year, it’s not ideal to have a change in offense, but those guys bought into what we’re trying to do and they reaped the benefits of it with their play.
Defensively, I was impressed with Derek Achaempong. As a young [defender], he improved every single day and near the end of the season, he was making plays you would expect out of a fourth or fifth year guy and he’s a second year. The future’s bright there. Overall the atmosphere and the way the kids bought into what we’re trying to do, that’s the biggest point I’m trying to come back to is we asked a lot from them, and a lot jumped in blind and weren’t too sure what to do. Some of the guys before we even had our coordinators and our coaches settled. To see them flourish underneath the new leadership has been great.
With the season over, do you have a favourite play from the season?
The win against Sherbrooke at home with that last second field goal was pretty special. I come back to the fade that Adam [Vance] threw to James [Tyrrell] against Montreal to put us in scoring position, that’s a pretty special play.
A lot of U Sports firsts for some of these kids. Jeremy Murphy’s first touchdown, Mancini’s first touchdown last week, Khadeem Pierre’s interceptions for touchdowns. Those were all special plays that I remember from this year.
Based on what you saw this year, are there any game plan tweaks you’re looking to make for next year?
We’re always looking to get better. We’re definitely going to sit down and re-look at our off-season training to make sure it’s on point with what we’re trying to accomplish. Strategy-wise, offense, defense, we’re going to review the film and see what it’s all about and see where we have to improve. But I think our schemes were pretty good. We always have to adapt, though, because teams are going to be watching our film now.
How are you hoping to replace the seniors class this year, with guys like Vance, Tyrrell, Jersey Henry and Sam Brodrique all graduating?
It’s always been a next man up mentality. You can’t replace those guys. They’re fifth year guys that bring a lot to the table. You just hope that the guys under them, that they’ve left a good footprint for them to step into by their actions and how they prepare. I actually thought those young guys took those steps and realized that’s the way you have to handle yourself as a university athlete. We’re going to go back to the drawing board and look at who we have and try to put out the best product possible. With recruiting, we’ll really define what we’re trying to do. Who’s going to be playing where, we don’t know yet. We’re trying to find better players each and every year.
Obviously, the team went through some losing streaks during the season, how do you keep players motivated and on track despite those stretches when things aren’t translating on the field?
It’s not hard to motivate these kids. It’s not a very long season, they put a lot of work into it, they know what they’re here for, they’re here to compete. They knew what they signed up for playing in the RSEQ.
It took some time for us to even score our first touchdown. It finally happened against Sherbrooke [in week five]. But the kids never gave up. We were gaining yards, we just weren’t finishing. Victories come, and it’s hard. We play in a very tough league. The RSEQ is probably the toughest in the country. We have perennial champions Laval, and Montreal is no slouch. McGill also took a big step forward this year. You saw it this year. Each and every week, there was a lot more parity. Every week you could win. When you play close games against Montreal, and get some victories against Sherbrooke, and the second game against McGill, we should have won that game.
What are some of those steps needed to close the gap between Concordia and Laval and UDEM?
It’s going to be recruiting. Our recruiting this year is going to be huge. There’s a buzz about us, sorry for the pun. I think that Concordia is an option for people now, especially in Quebec in the Cegeps compared to years past. We’ve worked hard on that.
We’ve seen every Cegep play at least once this year. I don’t think any other team in the country has done that. Especially in our conference, there’s nobody who’s done that. We went to every single spring camp this year, of the 30 Cegeps that play football, we were at every single one. I think we’ve checked some things that we wanted to do and establish some relationships in those Cegeps. It’s going to start paying off slowly but surely with some commitments coming up hopefully soon. The name of the game is recruiting.
What do you think you’re doing to separate Concordia from the other schools in this division?
It starts with recruiting and creating those relationships that we didn’t have before. We’re a great institution here, offer a lot of great academic programs that some other schools don’t. Being that option, and going after some French-Canadian kids is huge for us. There’s some very good football being played in french Cegeps, as well as english, but there’s only three [english Cegeps]. The other 27 are french. We have to create those relationships and that’s where we want to differentiate ourselves.
With Adam Vance graduating this year, do you think Olivier Roy will takeover that starting quarterback job?
It’s going to be an open competition. We have some other guys that are here as well. We’re recruiting guys as well. We’ll let it play itself out once camp starts and depending on who comes in January. For a start tomorrow though, Olivier would have the heads up on everybody.
I think the future’s bright. We weren’t too sure about that position but with him he’s shown us some good things.
Looking forward to next season, what’s one challenge you’re looking to overcome, and what’s something you’re looking forward to?
Replacing those guys that we talked about before is going to be a challenge. What I’m looking forward to is to see the progression of where we’re at. I think we have a good locker room, we have some kids that are excited about the off-season. I think it’s going to be a good year.
Feature photo by Mackenzie Lad, accompanying photos by Laurence BD
When I was a kid, I looked forward to Saturday nights more than anything else. Not because it was a night off of school followed by a morning where I could sleep in, but because it was Hockey Night in Canada.
When I think of the Saturday nights of my childhood, I think of the couch at my cottage, our TV that only had channel three CBC, my dad having a beer, my brother getting excited about Martin Brodeur’s new goalie pads…and Don Cherry.
Little me enjoyed the funky suits and the loud-mouthed old man who reminded me of my grandpa. Plus, Ron MacLean is kind of a silver fox? I digress. Little me really saw nothing wrong with Don Cherry. I once spent two of the five dollars my mom gave me for my school’s used book fair on a VHS copy of Don Cherry’s Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em: Volume 2, and “gifted” it back to my family.
But, as time passed, my frontal lobe started to develop. You know, the part of your brain that eventually allows you to foresee the consequences of your actions. Once that happened, it was easy for me to see that the man was problematic. I found myself regularly asking the question, “did he really just say that?” Over time, I came to see that he was completely incapable of calculating the weight of his words, and made absolutely no sense more often than not. Coach’s Corner made a swift change from something I looked forward to every week, to an opportunity to change the channel and catch up on something more interesting during intermission.
I initially wanted to write this article as a sort of “Exhibit A through Z” of instances in which Cherry has said something that made my skin crawl, but honestly, do a Google search and you’ll find a hundred other articles that do just that. So, instead, I’ll just highlight my personal favourite. It isn’t my favourite because it’s funny – in fact, it isn’t funny at all – but it comes to mind because I vividly remember tweeting my frustration at the time, and random men on Twitter replying to me exactly as you’d expect them to.
In 2018, during the PyeongChang Olympic Winter Games, a photo circulated of Canadian women’s hockey player Meghan Agosta, who also worked as a police officer for the Vancouver Police Department. She was posing in uniform in front of her police cruiser; hockey gloves and stick in hand, skates and helmet resting on the hood. During the next airing of Coach’s Corner, Don Cherry pulled up the photo of her on millions of Canadians’ screens and remarked that she looked like a Sports Illustrated model. Nothing about the fact that she was the team’s assistant captain, nothing about the fact that she is a three-time Olympic gold medalist (not to mention her numerous other athletic accomplishments), just the fact that the photo suited his imagination’s needs.
Let’s not forget for a second that we don’t hear about Olympic men’s hockey team players working day jobs – at all – because they’re paid more than adequately for their athletic contributions to the earth and don’t need the extra income.
So, that’s when I knew I was absolutely done with Don. That was almost two years ago. He is brash, inconsiderate, and arguably senile. Sure, he represents Canada, but he hasn’t represented any Canadian values that I care to partake in, in a very long time (he appeared on Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight a mere day after his firing, just in case there were any doubts about just how far-right he is). Plus, my dear Ron MacLean was a ticking time bomb with Cherry by his side. I’m actually sad that we never got to see him snap: “Don! Cut the shit, we only have seven minutes! We get it, he’s a good old boy from Southern Ontario!”
Time was up, and Sportsnet did the right thing. There are a plethora of better-spoken former hockey legends out there. Let’s all hang in there, and make Hockey Night in Canada great again, shall we?
That is the message in the room after the Stingers lost their fifth game in a row on Saturday night. The Ontario Tech Ridgebacks, who blew a two goal lead in the final moments of the third period to McGill the night before, fought their way back to a scrappy 3-2 overtime victory over Concordia.
Head coach Marc-André Élement let out a big sigh of frustration before answering the first question from the media after the loss. He was not frustrated with his team, not with the officiating, and especially not with his goaltending, as Sébastien Lefebvre bailed his team out multiple times during the game.
It’s injuries.
On Saturday night, seven regulars were held out of the lineup due to injuries. Philippe Sanche, Alexander Katerinakis, Jeff de Wit, Jake Fletcher, Zachary Zorn, Mathieu Desautels and Anthony Dumont-Bouchard. That’s incredibly tough for any hockey team, let alone a university one that doesn’t have a farm team. Because of all the injuries, Élement was forced to ice seven defencemen and 11 forwards.
“[Fletcher and de Wit] got hurt after last night’s game,” said Élement. “We were waiting for the doctor’s report up until the game so we had to adjust the lineup. It’s not an excuse. Tonight we battled way harder than [Friday].”
If things weren’t bad enough, Chase Harwell had himself an injury scare on Saturday. Harwell blocked a shot in the second period and immediately went off favouring his right hand but the second year forward remained in the game and said it was nothing a little bit of ice couldn’t fix.
Injuries happen, it just sucks that we’ve had quite a few lately,” Harwell said. “We’ll be alright, it’s a little bit of an adjustment but it comes with [the game of hockey].”
Élement only tipped his hand towards a timeline on Sanche when asked, saying that he’s expected back sometime after Christmas. The captain of the Stingers last played on Oct. 18, when he broke his hand in the third period after blocking a shot.
The injuries kept piling on, and have caught up with the Stingers. Their last win came on Nov. 1 against UQTR. Since then they’ve lost five in a row while only scoring 11 times in those five games.
Even before the injuries started to accumulate, goal scoring wasn’t exactly a strength of this team. Through 14 games, the Stingers average under 3 goals a game, 2.69 to be exact, their lowest total ever.
Alexandre Gosselin, who scored his first goal of the season last night, was optimistic after last night’s defeat when asked about the team’s offensive output and its potential with a fully healthy lineup. Gosselin said he believes that they will be a much more dangerous team.
There were a lot of positives to pull from last night’s loss, despite falling further in the standings and the lack of goal scoring.
One of those positives was that the Stingers looked quite good on the powerplay despite only converting on one of their six opportunities, with most of the puck movement and opportunities being set up by the defence; something that Gosselin says is incredibly important for this team.
Photo by Cecilia Piga.
“We want to create more from the [defence],” Gosselin said. “We have the guys to do it. Neill, [Lalonde], Corbeil, Bilodeau. They are all offensive guys. If we use them more I think it’ll lead to more goals [which will] lead to more wins.”
Another bright spot is that the Stingers battled for a full 60 minutes. Consistent play has been an issue for this team and has no doubt made Élement’s head want to explode at times. Friday night’s performance against the last place Laurentian Voyageurs was an ugly one, to put it lightly. Players were coasting, perhaps with the mindset that it would be an automatic win. Well, it wasn’t and they had to come up with a rebound performance, if not for themselves, for the fans that come out every weekend to see them.
Saturday was a completely different story. Forwards were back-checking hard, defencemen were making smart decisions with and without the puck, and when mistakes were made, Sébastien Lefebvre was there to bail out his team.
“It was his third start of the season. He now has one win and two overtime losses, when he could easily have three wins,” said Gosselin. “It’s just a matter of details and not for him. For everybody.”
The Stingers have two regular season games left in 2019 so they will have ample time to get healthy and ice a full line up.
Concordia will head to Kingston next week for their second and final matchup of the season against RMC on Saturday night.
