Good Home Cooking

Men’s Hockey Team Gets Going at Ed Meagher

SportsDaniele Iannarone — Published October 14, 2014

The task appears difficult, but it does get easier when your team wins games.

“Being the leader is easy,” Hinse said. “We have a great bunch of guys so there’s not a lot of negative things in the room. We just have to stay positive and tell the guys what their expectation is and tonight was great because they all did it so it was easy.

After losing their first two games of the season on the road, the Stingers won their first two home games of the season in the comforts of the Ed Meagher Arena, including a 5-2 win in their home opener against the Carleton Ravens this past Friday night. The team’s young players were instrumental in the team’s success.

“The young guys were great, they played their game,” said Hinse after Friday night’s home opening win. “They chipped pucks, they skated hard and they did what they had to do to win, and that’s what happened.”

One of the new rookies, forward Scott Oke, scored the game’s opening goal 19 seconds into the game, leading the charge for the Stingers, who carried the play for most of the game.

“Oke’s goal was huge,” said Hinse. “When you score at the beginning of the game like that you get the momentum quick and we needed that after last weekend, so it’s perfect.”

“I felt good [after scoring],” Oke said. “It was early in the game of course and it got the guys going so it was a good way to start the game.

“The leadership group leads the way and during the difficult periods they keep us calm,” Oke continued. “It’s a good group of guys.”

The Ravens did tie the game momentarily in the first, only for veteran Sean Blunden to give the Stingers the lead again at 6:30 of the opening frame. Fellow veteran Jessyko Bernard scored on the power play with less than four minutes to play in the first.

Concordia added to their goal total in the second period, with a goal from rookie Matt Boudreau at 4:40 of the period, and despite a second tally from Carleton, Antoine Houde-Caron, put the game out of reach for Carleton with a marker late in the second.

A scoreless third period secured the victory for Concordia, much to the delight of Stingers head coach, Kevin Figsby.

“I just told the guys, if they play that way every game with that intensity, we’re going to have tremendous success this season,” added Figsby. “We’re a young inexperienced team and the way we played tonight shows we’ve got a lot of character and the guys are paying attention in practice.”

“The team today played awesome,” defenceman and alternate captain Youssef Kabbaj added. “Guys played well. Everybody did those little details and I’m glad with the results.”

The season is still young, but the season just took a turn for the better for the Stingers.

“It’s fun to get the first win,” said rookie defenceman Francis Turbide. “Sometimes the first one is the hardest to get and when you get it, things get better.”

Correction: The original version of this article stated that forward Antoine-Houde Caron was a rookie. In fact, he is a fourth-year player. The Link regrets the error.