Concordia 5, RMC 3: Stingers Extend Strong Start Despite Costly Mistakes

Concordia Penalties Gave Winless Paladins Glimmer of Hope

SportsDawn Kagan-Fleming — Published November 5, 2017

Against a team they should have beaten easily, the Stingers ended up getting caught in a close contest late and letting their lack of discipline show to the displeasure of their coach.

“I’m really happy about our start but we have a lot of things we need to work on. Especially our discipline,” said Concordia head coach Marc-Andre Element. “There’s going to be a lot of video [sessions] on Tuesday. They’re going to understand, let me tell you.”

Element was referring to the eight minor penalties taken by his skaters throughout the night. Concordia was stuck playing over a quarter of the game shorthanded due to penalties that were nowhere near the realm of necessary.

Less than two minutes in, Element’s team found themselves shorthanded as Ontario University Athletics’ leading scorer, forward Anthony Beauregard, took his first of three minors on the night.

Luckily for the Stingers, their penalty killers and goalie Marc-Antoine Turcotte showed up big during the numerical disadvantages. Turcotte, having just come back from injury, played both game in the Stingers’ back-to-back this weekend.

“It’s a short season. We only have 28 games […] it was important for me to just go out and play,” said Turcotte, who turned aside 18 of the 21 shots the Paladins threw at him.

Fortunately for Concordia, they got a chance to do what their opponents couldn’t when RMC’s Bruce Hornbrook got called for tripping. The ensuing power play would see forward Dominic Beauchemin bury a goal off a pass fed to him by Beauregard. With the Stingers up 1-0, Beauregard saw his season-opening point-streak grow to eight games.

The Stingers offense was humming. Midway through the period, forward Alexis Pepin and Beauregard hit back-to-back posts, missing the chance to extend the lead by inches.

“We have some good offensive guys. [forward Massimo Carozza], Beauchemin, a lot of guys can play offensively,” praised Beauregard, whose 20 points are seven ahead of the next highest OUA scorer. “We need to be better in our zone but I think we have the offense to play against anyone in the league.”

The team’s offensive work would pay off thanks to some strong skating and creative puck work around the net by forward Charles-Eric Legare, who put the stingers up 2-0.

The two-goal lead was to be short-lived, as the Stingers lack of discipline burned them. RMC scored their first goal of the night just seconds before Beauregard’s tripping minor expired.

Despite a frustrated skate back to the bench after that, Beauregard understood what needs to be done moving forward for the team.

“We need to be safe out there,” said Beauregard of his own lack of discipline as well as his teammates.’ “We need to be hard, yes, but we need to pay attention to detail. Things like hooking penalties after the whistle, we just need to be aware of that.”

RMC’s frustration seemed only to mount as the Stingers came out flying to start the third period. Less than a minute in, defender Carl Neill caught a weak clearing attempt in front of the goalie, firing it home for his second point of the night and tenth of the year.

Just when RMC thought they had a chance to close the gap again on a penalty to Concordia forward Scott Oke less than two minutes later, Beauregard struck again. The Saint-Damase native turned a chance created by Carozza into his second shorthanded goal of the weekend and what would effectively become the game winner.

Late penalties and costly mistakes hounded the Stingers through the game. After a dominant 6-2 performance against the University of Ontario Institute of Technology Ridgebacks the night before, eking out a victory against a team that has yet to win a game is not what the team is aiming for, regardless of how their own record looks.

“We need to get better,” said Element “I’m happy about the two points, I’m not happy with our performance.”