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Concordia’s comeback falls short

Photo by Marie-Josée Kelly.
Photo by Marie-Josée Kelly.

In any sport, if a team does not play from the first to the final whistle, odds are that team is going to lose. The Stingers men’s hockey team found out the hard way Friday night, when they hosted the Ottawa Gee-Gees. Despite controlling the last two periods, the Stingers could not overcome a slow start and lost 5-3.

Ottawa scored 32 seconds into the game and the Stingers were down before the home crowd at Ed Meagher Arena had settled into their seats. The Gee-Gees outshot the Stingers 14-5 and went two-for-two on power-play opportunities in the period, however, Concordia did not capitalize on theirs. By the end of the first period the Stingers were down 4-0 and could never come all the way back.

“I don’t think we came out the way we should have come out tonight,” said Concordia’s head coach Kevin Figsby. “For some reason we didn’t have that intensity in the first 20 minutes.”

Stingers starting goaltender Antonio Mastropietro had a short night as he gave up three goals on his first six shots. He was replaced by Loic Boivin who had a great game off the bench. Boivin saved 26 out of the 28 shots that he face and gave Concordia a chance to come back.

Once the Stingers stepped onto the ice to start the second period, the momentum changed. Etienne Archambault scored for the Stingers 43 seconds into the second and gave the home crowd life for the first time during the game. From then on, the Stingers took it to the Gee-Gees and out shot them 22-20 in the final two periods. Alexandre Monahan scored a shorthanded goal late in the second period and then Youssef Kabbaj scored three minutes into the third to cut the deficit to two.

“I am proud of the way the guys bounced back, I am proud of the intensity that we showed in the second period,” said Figsby. “For 40 minutes we were the better team on the ice.”

Although that was as close as it got for Concordia, there was reason for optimism. Most teams would have given up after falling behind 4-0, but the Stingers fought hard and made a game of it. If it was not for Concordia’s slow start, it would have been an entirely different game.

“It’s young in the season,” Figsby said. “We got to learn as a young team to play consistently for 60 minutes, we didn’t do it tonight and it hurt us.”

 

The team has a week to rest before playing a home-and-away double-header with the RMC Paladins. The Stingers will play host first on Friday, Oct. 26 at 7:30 p.m. at Ed Meagher Arena. Both teams will face off again on Saturday at RMC at 7 p.m.

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Stingers defeat defending champions McGill in home-opener

Photo by Marie-Josée Kelly
Photo by Marie-Josée Kelly

The Concordia Stingers men’s hockey team came out on top of a high-scoring affair, winning 6-5 in their home-opener on Friday against the defending national champions, the McGill Redmen.

The Stingers set the tone early in the game at the Ed Meagher Arena , as right winger Etienne Archambault was given a two minute penalty and a 10-minute game misconduct for leveling a Redmen player less than one minute into the game.

After nearly seven minutes into the first period, while Archambault was still serving his misconduct, the Redmen opened the scoring on a goal by center Jonathan Brunelle. The Stingers responded at the end of the first period with a few chances of their own. Archambault took a drop pass from his teammate with a little more than three minutes left in the period. Redmen goaltender Hubert Morin was sharp and made the save.

With less than two minutes to go, Stinger George Lovatsis equalized the score after tucking the puck into the side on a rebound scramble in front of the net.

“We took a penalty [in the first period] and we lost a player for 10 minutes, and that kind of upset our lines,” explained coach Kevin Figsby. “I think that gave the Redmen an advantage […] but by the end of the period, it was still 1-1.”

The Stingers took their first lead of the game at 17:25 of the second period on a shorthanded goal by Lovatsis, his second of the night.

The Redmen tied the game up soon after when defenseman Hugo Laporte blasted a shot past Stingers goalie Nicholas Champion from the blueline.

After two goals from each side, the Stingers regained the lead once again at 6:16 of the third period. They hung onto it until the end of the game. Youssef Kabbaj made it 4-3 Stingers when his wrist shot from the point went in five hole.

Redmen winger Justin Ducharme was sent to the penalty box during the third for roughing after the whistle, and the Stingers took full advantage of the handicap. Alexandre Monahan passed it up the wing to an open Kyle Kelly who scored to give the Stingers a 5-3 lead.

After Archambault gave his team a three goal lead five minutes later, the Redmen got goals from Brunelle and Marc-Olivier Vachon in the last three minutes. However, the Stingers were able to hold off their rivals and win.

“Offensively, we did everything we needed to do,” said Lovatsis. “We just need to tighten up defensively.”

As a whole, coach Figsby believes this win is a sign of things to come.

“You saw the grit and the determination and I think our team will have this season,” he said. “We just played the defending national champions and we beat them on home ice to start the season with our first win. I’m very pleased with the effort of all our players tonight.”

 

Concordia will travel to Ottawa for their next game against Carleton University on Friday, Oct. 12 at 7 p.m.

 

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Stingers left to reflect on what could have been

Captain Eric Bégin has played his last game in a Stingers uniform. Photo by Navneet Pall
Captain Eric Bégin has played his last game in a Stingers uniform. Photo by Navneet Pall

An exciting season came to its heartbreaking conclusion on Saturday afternoon for the Stingers men’s hockey team, who will be watching the CIS post-season.

Facing the Carleton Ravens, and needing a single point coupled with a Queen’s loss, the Stingers were blanked 7-0 by a Ravens team that had already locked up a playoff spot in the OUA East.

Though Queen’s lost on Saturday against Nipissing, they still held the tie-breaker over Concordia, which was goal differential in the two teams’ head-to-head match-ups. Concordia defeated Queen’s 6-1 earlier in the year, but a 9-2 loss was what inevitably gave Queen’s the final playoff berth.

Missing out in such a close fashion makes it easy to nitpick every goal or loss, but a few games stand out more than others for Stingers Coach Kevin Figsby.

“There’s probably three games this season I’d like to have back,” said Figsby, identifying a particularly frustrating December loss to Ottawa where the Stingers had their seemingly tying goal disallowed. “There were a few games this year where I thought the players didn’t compete as hard as they needed to and I told them going into those games that those are the types of games that bite you in the ass. And we got bit in the ass, and that’s the sign of a young team.”

Unlike the veteran teams it faced down the stretch, Concordia was stocked with first- and second-year players, many of whom felt the weight of the playoff
pressure.

“When you come into this league as a 20-year-old, you’re facing guys [who have been in the league for five years], that have been where you are, so there is a learning curve there,” said Figsby.

He is also trying to not get frustrated by the fact that Concordia would have qualified, quite easily, for the playoffs if they were in the OUA West. He does think, though, that it is time for the OUA to look at making some changes to the present system that was created when the landscape of OUA hockey was much different.

“The part that’s frustrating is to see how balanced the league has become, and see no changes to allow for the balance,” said Figsby. “The structure was created [to allow for weaker teams to compete], but we’re well past that.”

The end of a season for any team, especially at the collegiate level, often means saying goodbye to some familiar faces. For Figsby, missing the playoffs is as much disappointing from a personal level as a competitive level.

“The disappointing part is that we’re not going to be together everyday,” he said. “It’s the most disappointing because you come in and there’s a group of guys that are committed to each other and when the season ends you know some guys aren’t coming back and you’re not going to see them.”

If Concordia can keep the core of its team together, it will be a dangerous squad next year, especially if it can improve defensively and the three rookie goalies develop after playing a full season.

Figsby did mention, though, that a few players are in talks with professional clubs, primarily in Europe, but would not release the players’ names at this stage of negotiations.

It will undoubtedly be a long off-season for Concordia, but if Figsby can land some of the recruits he has his eyes on, and the team keeps its core together, McGill may not be the only team in this city with championship expectations.

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