The losing streak continues for the Concordia Stingers men’s hockey team after they lost 4-2 to the Laurentian Voyageurs at the Ed Meagher Arena on Friday night.
It was a game of numbers last night: the Stingers overpowered the Voyageurs with shots on net, ending with 36 to the Voyageurs 27. The Voyageurs had 18 penalty minutes on eight infractions. You could say the game was aggressive, with big hits at both ends of the ice by each team — the backboards of the rink burst open at one point – players tripping over their teammates and opponents, sticks flying out of their hands. It was that kind of night for the Stingers.
With all this, the Stingers had six power play opportunities — which head coach Marc-André Élement called “terrible.”
“We didn’t execute the power play properly and we didn’t have success,” says Élement. “If we play for 40 minutes in this league, we’re never going to have success; we have to play for 60 minutes.”
The Stingers had 12 scoring opportunities in the first, but the Voyageurs came up and scored two goals. In the second, there was a lone goal scored by the Stingers’s Liam Murphy, assisted by Bradley Lalonde.
“We want to be discipled, especially at the end of the game we had a chance to come back and some of the penalties kind of took the momentum away and gave it to them,” says Lalonde about what the team could improve on.
“The penalties were late so I think we could have done something earlier to keep us out of that position but we have to stay disciplined, especially in the last couple of minutes of the game when we need a goal.”
Players continued falling over each other for the rest of the game, and tensions were high. Little scuffles broke out almost every time the goalies stopped the puck. Concordia’s Colin Grannary got swooped up against the boards a few times. He finally got the chance to break free and make his way towards the Voyageurs’s net, only to be brought down to the ice by an opponent at the blue line. After landing on his face, the refs allowed him a penalty shot, which he missed.
He redeemed himself less than five minutes into the third with Concordia’s second goal of the game. The rest of the period, there were more penalties for each team, with the Voyageurs scoring two goals on the power play, winning the game 4-2 as the last-ranked team in the division.
The Stingers will play host to the Ontario Tech Ridgebacks tonight at 5 p.m. where they will look to end their four-game losing streak.
Feature photo by Alex Hutchins