Men’s Hockey: A Much-Needed Victory

Stingers Edge Guelph Gryphons With 3-2 Win

SportsDaniele Iannarone — Published November 24, 2014 | Updated November 24, 2014 at 11:27pm

Scott Oke’s goal in the third period proved to be the game winner, as goaltender Robin Billingham made several highlight reel saves, including one in the final seconds, to secure the victory for his team.

“I feel pretty good,” said Oke after the game. “It’s been a while since we won, so I think the boys are pretty happy about that. Robin was really good for us; he made some key saves and that’s what I feel made us stay in the game.”

The Stingers jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period on goals by captain Olivier Hinse and Dominic Beauchemin. But with the previous night’s meltdown fresh in their minds the Stingers were quick to blow a 2-0 lead in the second period against the Gryphons and were at risk of losing yet another game, much to the displeasure of head coach Kevin Figsby.

“I went out there between the second and third period and I just asked them why they didn’t follow the game plan,” said Figsby. “They followed the game plan in the first period and we scored two goals. We didn’t follow the game plan in the second period. We had guys doing individual shit. When you do individual shit, the team fucking takes second position. And then we went out there in the third period and played like a team, and when we did that, we had success.”

“We talked a little [in the second intermission],” added Hinse. “We knew that the second period was always a struggle for us so we tried to stay focused and just go back to our game plan, simple plays, and just skate, and that’s what we did in the third.”

Figsby was also quick to give praise to Billingham, who made 35 saves on the night and rebounded with a solid performance after having given up eight goals the night before.

“I’m not going to bullshit, I think [the play of our goaltender] was the major difference between last night and tonight,” Figsby said. “He brought his A game tonight. I don’t think he brought it last night. I thought today in the third period, he made some outstanding saves and that gave us momentum.”

Despite blowing another lead, Figsby knows that it’s a learning process with this team.

“At the end of the day you take the win,” Figsby said. “We’re a young team, we’ve faced some adversity, we’ve had a lot of injuries this year, we’ve been playing with three forwards on the back end, our goaltender’s been second-guessing himself quite a bit. Today the guys went out there, took a lead, then turned it into a tied game and then we went out and persevered in the third period.”

The Stingers now play two more games before the Christmas break, including a big game next Thursday at McGill and a game next Sunday at Royal Military College. If Hinse gets his wish, the Stingers will win both games.

“We want to win all the games we have left before Christmas, so it’s a good start,” he said.