Laurentian 4, Concordia 2: Winning Streak Ends Against Weaker Opponent

Overconfidence and Hot Goaltender Down Stingers Men’s Hockey

SportsDawn Kagan-Fleming — Published January 20, 2019

It was a tough loss for the Stingers who saw their streak of four wins in a row and nine wins in their last 11 games come to an end.

After comeback wins against some of the league’s top teams, their streak-breaking loss didn’t come against a team like Ottawa or McGill, but the Laurentian Voyageurs; a team with less than half the points of the Stingers and just six wins in the season.

The Stingers came out sloppy, as they have done several times this season, but still were clearly a more skilled team than their visiting opponents.

“It was all over the place a little bit. It wasn’t one thing that put us under,” said Stingers rookie Dylan McCrory who was moved around the lineup throughout the night due to his strong performance.

An easy obstacle for the Stingers to point to was the dominant performance of Voyageurs netminder Mackenzie Savard. The Stingers outshot the visitors all night, doubling their shot totals in both the second and third periods. Savard turned away 40 of the 42 shots he faced.

It was also a game that seemed to stray away from the Stingers’ style, and was closer to that of the Voyageurs’. Concordia got caught in a chippy, rough, physical game, something they’re good at when it also makes room for their skill to shine. In some moments it seemed like the home team was getting frustrated by both the opposing goalie and the playing style of the team in front of them.

McCrory noted that one of Laurentian’s players attempted to take a run at him at head level, but besides that he felt the game was no more hard hitting than the night before against a heavy Queen’s team.

But aside from the logistical issues presented by the Voyageurs, the Stingers’ biggest difficulty in the loss may have been self-inflicted.

“We had a good sequence going into this so maybe that played a part in this,” said Stingers defenceman Carl Neill. “Maybe we got a little too confident. We were doing things we weren’t doing in the games that we were winning. It was a wake up call for us.”

While the Stingers’ recent run has done plenty for their place in the standings and for team morale, a game like this could serve as a reminder of what it was that has made them so successful over the last number of weeks.

With several tough matchups coming up, the Stingers will need to return to the form they showed leading up to the game against Laurentian if they want to continue to climb the standings and close out the regular season on a high note.

The Stingers’ next games will be on the road as they travel to play Carleton and Queen’s this coming weekend.