Men’s Hockey: Stingers Hang On, Defeat Ridgebacks 4-3

Concordia Held 3-0 Lead Going Into Third Period

SportsSafia Ahmad — Published November 19, 2016

Prior to losing the game 4-3 to Concordia, UOIT experienced difficulties with their bus, causing them to arrive late to Ed Meagher Arena and pushing the game time from 7:30pm to 8:30pm.

Despite the travel setback, the UOIT Ridgebacks battled hard towards the end of the game, scoring two goals at the end of the second period and beginning of the third to reduce the Stingers three-goal lead to one. The Ridgebacks are ranked fourth nationally.

“They were playing a really good road-game,” said forward Anthony De Luca, the second-leading goal-scorer in Canada.

“It’s hard to get the legs going to start the game right off an eight-hour bus ride.”

Ultimately, Concordia, who currently sits in ninth place amongst all Canadian teams, came out with a 4-3 victory in front of a crowd of 191 fans on home ice.

The Stingers took advantage of this early in the game, scoring two goals midway through the first period. De Luca scored his 12th goal in 12 games, and 10 seconds later, Antoine Masson added his second goal of the season.

“We came out strong,” said De Luca. “That was our weakness in the past few games that we had a slow start. It was good for us to get a good start and it helped us a lot tonight.”

Forward Scott Oke thought he potted his team’s third-goal towards the end of the period but it was refused.

“I didn’t see if it went in or not,” said Stingers head coach Marc-André Element. “A lot of the guys on the bench didn’t see it either.”

That only fueled the Stingers, who tripled their lead in the second period when Charles-Antoine Legare took a penalty-shot, initially stopped by Ridgeback netminder Tyson Teichman. The puck trickled off his glove and slowly slid across the goal line.

“I missed a lot of breakaways this year,” said Legare, chuckling. “I wanted to keep it simple, just put the puck on net.”

The second period was plagued by indiscipline, resulting in nine penalties total, five of which by UOIT. However, the Ridgebacks capitalized with less than five minutes left in the period. Charles Guevremont was sent to the penalty-box for high-sticking and defenseman Kyle Locke scored his team’s first goal of the game off a shot from the blueline.

Concordia’s indiscipline continued to benefit UOIT going into the third period. Stingers Matt Boudreau was penalized for charging at the end of the second period, carrying over to the third. Forward Mike Robinson scored off a shot from the point to reduce the gap by one goal.

UOIT outshot the Stingers 10-4, but goaltender Philippe Cadorette made key saves to keep his team in the game. Olivier Hinse added an empty netter at the end of the game. With two seconds left in the game, Ridgebacks Anthony Latina made it 4-3, but it was too little, too late.

Concordia is back in action tonight at 7:30pm when they take on U Sports number 10 ranked Queen’s University at Ed Meagher Arena.