Men’s Hockey: Stingers Blank Thunderwolves 4-0

Concordia Improve to Four Straight Wins By Beating Lakehead

SportsJordan Stoopler — Published October 30, 2016

The Stingers took advantage of Lakehead’s indiscipline early on in the contest, scoring two power play goals before the initial frame was up. It was a lead they would not relinquish.

“That’s the best thing to do,” said Stingers head coach Marc-André Élement. “When they get a penalty, you have to score on the power play.”

“We were disciplined tonight,” said Stingers forward Raphaël Lafontaine. “When they took bad penalties, we took advantage. It’s a good thing for us to benefit from their indiscipline.”

Philippe Sanche opened the scoring for the Stingers in the first period. He took a cross-ice pass from Anthony De Luca before wiring a slapshot from just inside the left faceoff circle. The shot beat Thunderwolves goaltender Devin Green up high. It was Sanche’s first career goal as a Stinger.

Frustration appeared to take over the Thunderwolves as the period progressed. After Lakehead defenseman Justin Sefton was called for roughing at 18:00, it would only take 25 seconds for Scott Oke to capitalize. He deftly redirected a pass from defender Anthony Cortese at the right side of the net for his fifth goal of the season.

Lafontaine took over in the second period. He beat Green from an impossible angle to make it 3-0 and would add another tally just over three minutes later, thanks to a centering pass from Julien Rainville-Avon.

“I’m very happy with those two goals,” said Lafontaine after the game.

Lakehead head coach Bill McDonald called on his back up goalie, Justin McDonald to start the third period in an effort to shake up his squad. His move appeared to work as the Thunderwolves had increased pressure in the offensive zone for large segments of the period. However, all eight shots directed Miguel Sullivan’s way in the period were denied. He would make 20 saves in the game for the shutout.

“I just battled and the puck happened to hit me a few times,” said Sullivan. “Just lucky bounces tonight.”

“I’m so happy for him,” said Élement. “He’s a warrior. He had a really good game tonight. He deserved that win and that shutout.”

Sullivan started the game in place of starting netminder Philippe Cadorette, who had played the previous night. It was only Sullivan’s second start of the campaign. When asked if he set out to prove anything to his coach by his strong showing, he simply said it is up to the coach to make the line-up decisions.

The Stingers ran their record to 6-1 with their two victories against the Thunderwolves. Both coach and players are happy with their results early on, but still see room for improvement.

“We have a good work ethic,” said Élement. “If you want to have success in that league, you need to work hard. We can’t take any team lightly.”

“We are very happy about our start,” said Lafontaine. “The good thing is that we didn’t play a full 60 minutes yet. Tonight we played two good periods. I can’t wait to see when we are going to go out and play a solid 60 minutes.”

The Stingers next game is on Friday, Nov. 4 at 7:30 p.m. in the Ed Meagher Arena against the Laurentian Voyageurs.