Going Through Rough Times

Stingers Lose Out to Last-Place RMC

SportsYacine Bouhali — Published October 29, 2012

Before Friday night’s game, the Stingers men’s hockey team had reason to be confident. After all, they were playing at home against a winless team that they easily beat three times last year. But good goaltending gave the Royal Military College a first-season win, coming out 3-2 against Concordia’s squad.

RMC were there to win and proved it early in the game. They were all over the Stingers’ crease, and that’s how RMC scored their first goal. Forward Colin Cook took advantage of a net left empty by the Stingers’ goalie and a defense that looked simply overwhelmed.

A minute into the game, and the Stingers were already behind.

Head coach Kevin Figsby wasn’t pleased with the way his team started the game.

“You can’t work four days a week in practice and come out and not execute the things you practice,” said Figsby.

“You gotta play your system and work as hard as you’re supposed to.”

Stingers bounced back though, with two goals in a matter of minutes.

First Olivier Hinse finished a well-orchestrated passing play initiated by Alex Zafaris and Sean Blunden, then Corey Garland, unassisted, gave a 2-1 lead to the Stingers. Posted in front on the net, he took advantage of the traffic created by his teammates and like Hinse, he scored his first season goal.

But RMC were determined to show that they’re a different team this year and equaled the score minutes after. Again, they bombarded the Stingers’ net, giving the opportunity to Frederic Thouin to tie the game. Alone in front of the net with a juicy rebound on his tape, he didn’t miss.

After a scoreless second period that was mainly dominated by the Stingers, RMC found a way to score the decisive goal in the third. Forward Braden Casper took advantage of a turnover, and scored a breakaway goal to give his team a 3-2 lead with 16 minutes left in the game.

While the Stingers had many chances to tie the game, RMC goaltender Paul Dorsey denied every attempt. Dominating 31-9 in the shot during the last two periods, Concordia couldn’t find a way to tie the game and lost their third game in a row.

“We didn’t get many goals and you’re not gonna win a lot of games in this league with two goals,” said Coach Figsby after a game that he felt that they could’ve won.

“Their goaltender was the difference, he made some keys saves at key times. That frustrated our scorers and when guys get frustrated they try to do things on their own,” he said.

The day after, the Stingers lost again visiting RMC, 3-1 this time.