UOIT Ridgebacks – The Concordian

“We need to get back to basics.”

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.

“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.

Photo by Cecilia Piga

Massimo Carozza scored a hat-trick against UOIT Ridgebacks

Anthony Beauregard’s six points propelled the Concordia Stingers men’s hockey team to a 6-2 win over the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) Ridgebacks on Nov. 3. Stingers rookie forward Massimo Carozza scored three goals in the win at the Ed Meagher Arena.

“They were moving their feet,” said head coach Marc-André Élement about Carozza and Beauregard. “Carozza is a fast skater, and Beauregard’s vision is so good. Those two, with [Dominic] Beauchemin, it’s a really good line, so I’m happy about their performance tonight.”

The Ridgebacks controlled the game in the first period. They failed to generate any real scoring chances, with only seven shots on Stingers goalie Marc-Antoine Turcotte, who returned between the pipes after missing the last two games with an injury.

With the Ridgebacks on a power play late in the first period, Beauregard stole the puck from a UOIT defenceman deep in their zone, and beat Ridgebacks goalie Tyson Teichmann high-glove side to give the Stingers a 1-0 lead.

The Stingers continued their undisciplined start to the season with two minor penalties in the first period. At the end of the period, Stingers forward Raphaël Lafontaine hit Ridgebacks forward Josh Maguire from behind, and received a five-minute major and a game misconduct.

“We have to be more disciplined,” Élement said. “We can’t give teams chances to get momentum on their power play.”

The Ridgebacks started the second period with a five-on-three power play after the Lafontaine and Beauchemin penalties in the first period. The Ridgebacks failed to score on the power play, including the remainder of Lafontaine’s five-minute penalty.

“Our penalty kill was good,” Élement said. “I find that’s the key of the game, when you don’t get scored on [during the penalty kill]. The guys paid the price by blocking shots.”

The Stingers pulled the game in their favour in the second period. Five minutes in, forward Brandon Kosik scored from the high slot off a pass from Beauregard, to give the Stingers a 2-0 lead. After Carozza extended the lead to three goals less than two minutes later, Ridgebacks forward Mike Robinson put his team on the board midway through the period.

With 30 seconds remaining in the second period, Beauregard scored from behind the Ridgebacks goal line by shooting the puck off Teichmann’s back and in.

“I just saw an opportunity to put [the puck] on net and go short side,” Beauregard said. “I just tried, and at the end of the day, it was a goal.” The Stingers led 4-1 after two periods.

Anthony Beauregard scored a wonderful goal from behind the goal line in the second period. Photo by Alex Hutchins.

In the third period, Carozza and Beauregard continued their dominance. Just under a minute in, Beauregard created a turnover in the Stingers zone, then flipped the puck through the neutral zone to Carozza, who went on a breakaway and scored with a backhand shot.

On a power play late in the third period, Carozza scored his third goal from a rebound. Carozza credited his hat-trick to his linemates, who “made nice plays,” and all he had to do was “put it in.”

“It’s a couple of games [Beauregard and I] are playing together now,” Carozza said. “I see him on the ice, and he sees me, so it’s working well so far.”

Beauregard said after the game that his line wouldn’t be as good without Beauchemin, whose defensive play allows Beauregard and Carozza to create scoring opportunities.

“We have a good line. Me and Massimo have good chemistry out there,” Beauregard said. “With the speed of Carozza, I try to play with that, and I try to use his speed.”

Beauregard now has seven goals and 10 assists in seven games this year. He’s the leading scorer in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA), and has the third-most points in U Sports.

The Stingers, who improved to a 5-1-1 record, play their next game on Nov. 4 at home against the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC) Paladins.

Main photo by Alex Hutchins.