Growing Pains

Men’s Hockey Team Loses to UOIT Ridgebacks

SportsShane Wright — Published November 1, 2014

“It’s a young team and we’re growing, we have a lot of growing pains right now and with a situation like this we need our veteran players to step up.” said head coach Kevin Figsby, “However, one thing I’m very proud of is the guys hung in there and battled to the end.”

The Stingers found themselves down by one after only 4 minutes of play in the first period. The Stingers continued to apply pressure on the speedy UOIT team, but to no avail, and they were down 3-1 by the end of the first period.

The Stingers lone goal came from Dany Potvin, with under seven minutes before the intermission.

“I told the guys you can’t win a game in just one period, you have to play the full 60 minutes,” added Figsby. “I didn’t think we played the first full 20 properly and just told them to go win the second period and keep it going from there.”

“With momentum from the first goal, we knew we had 40 minutes to get back into the game and we just had to keep working” said second-year forward, Kieran O’Neil.

As the second period began, the Stingers came out shooting and replied with goals from Scott Oke and Youssef Kabbaj to tie the game at 3 goals apiece.

“I just got the pass from the corner, pulled it to my backhand then to my forehand and then you know, just hope for the best” said Assistant Captain, Youssef Kabbaj about his tying goal.

However, that was as close as the Stingers got to winning the game. With UOIT adding three more goals by the end of the third, the Stingers let the game slip away.

“I don’t think it was a 6-3 game tonight, but we still didn’t execute parts of our game we need to execute to win games” said Figsby. “We need to play full 60 minutes if we want to start winning more games.”

The Stingers have not lost three games in a row since early last season, and they will attempt to avoid the losing streak as they face the Queens Gaels who will visit the Stingers’ at Ed Meagher Arena on Saturday, November 1st.

“We just have to execute the game plan. The guys know we need to battle back and get the 2 points at home,” said Figsby. “We hate losing at home, and I mean hate it. The team will need to bring their A game.”