Men’s Hockey: Stingers Too Strong for Denmark World Junior Team

Concordia Score Four Goals In Second Period To Come Out With 4-2 Win

SportsSafia Ahmad — Published December 18, 2016

It didn’t help that Denmark’s team bus was stalled on its way to Montreal because of an accident on the highway. Danish head coach Olaf Eller, father of former Montreal Canadien Lars Eller, said it wasn’t a factor in their loss.

“We came out strong,” said the head coach.

Indeed, the Danes came out flying in the first period, using their speed to pressure the Stingers defense. Concordia, who was without captain Olivier Hinse and forwards Philippe Hudon and Philippe Sanche, hadn’t practiced in two weeks because of final exams and it showed as Denmark outshot their opponent 13 to 6 after 20 minutes of play.

“I think in the first, we weren’t skating, we weren’t putting pucks on net,” said Stingers forward Anthony De Luca, who scored two goals.

“That period was [about] getting back on track,” said Element.

Denmark captain Alexander True scored on breakaway, going top-shelf on goaltender Philippe Cadorette with less than a minute left in the period.

“[It was] a good pass from our defenseman Morten Jensen,” said True. “Then I just tried to go forehand and fake and brought it home on the backhand and it went in.”

However, Denmark’s early lead would prove to be their only of the game. The Stingers quickly retaliated in the second period, when forward Antoine Masson tapped in a loose puck in a scrum in front of goaltender Kasper Krog to tie the game.

That goal gave the Stingers a much needed wake-up called. Anthony De Luca scored the first of his two goals six minutes into the second period. The puck bounced-off the boards behind Krog and the speedy forward went top-shelf.

“To be honest, it was good to have the break between the first and the second,” said De Luca. “To calm down and settle. We know we can play against them.”

The Danes, who quickly lost control of the game, called a timeout. The Stingers played a physical game. However, for Denmark’s head coach Olaf Eller, his players simply stopped skating.

“[The Stingers] woke up and we were a little comfortable,” said Eller.

Midway through the second, both teams switched goalies to give them a chance to play the second-half of the game. The Stingers replaced Cadorette with back-up netminder Miguel Sullivan, while Denmark’s Emil Gransøe took over the net for Krog. The Stingers heavily outshot the Danes 19 to 10.

Denmark’s second goal came on the powerplay when De Luca took a penalty for elbowing forward Joachim Blichfeld. Rasmus Thykjær Andersson scored off re-bound near the right face-off circle.

The Stingers added to their lead when defenseman Chris Domsodi scored his first goal of the season. De Luca redeemed himself and scored his second of the afternoon on the powerplay, taking control of the puck from his own blue line and carrying through into the Danes zone only to unleash a shot from right faceoff circle.

The Danes slowly started finding their game back in the third period with a couple of good chances in the offensive zone. However, Miguel Sullivan made key saves when he needed to.

Concordia took a penalty with less than two minutes left in the game. Denmark pulled their goalie for an extra forward but they couldn’t capitalize on their six-on-four man-advantage.

Despite the loss, Eller was satisfied with how his team used their speed to get pucks to the net in the first and last periods of the game; something they needed to do midway.

“It’s normal when you get confident [to] slow down a little bit,” he said. “So they learned a lesson there.”

The Danes will play Russia and Latvia to get into game-shape for the World Junior Hockey Championship. Meanwhile, the Concordia Stingers will be back in action in Kingston on Jan. 4 against Royal Military College.