No Love Lost During Rough Weekend in Thunder Bay

Lakehead Takes Two Straight from Stingers

SportsDavid S. Landsman — Published November 18, 2013 | Updated November 19, 2013 at 2:26am

It was the first time in three years the bees took on the Lakehead University Thunderwolves.

They started their game Friday hoping to move up from sixth place in the OUA standings with top-six forward Jessyco Bernard back in the lineup.

Forward Nicholas Samoluk was nursing a shoulder injury and didn’t dress for either game.

The first match started fast, and after a quick tussle between the Stingers’ Dany Potvin and the Thunderwolves’ Mike Quesnele the two were sent off for offsetting minors for roughing.

Concordia replied quickly off the ensuing draw, with rookie Kieran O’Neil potting his second career Canadian Interuniversity Sport goal just under four minutes into the game past Thunderwolves goaltender Justin McDonald.

“It’s always nice to contribute,” said O’Neil. “We played a pretty solid weekend and would’ve come out with a couple of wins against most teams.”

The Thunderwolves came streaking back a couple minutes later when they scored two within the span of 37 seconds, with defender Chris de la Lande scoring one, followed quickly by forward Cody Alcock—giving them the lead which they took to the dressing room.

After a scoreless second period and the shots close at 25-21, Concordia finally tied the game up midway through the third period when sophomore Ben Dubois scored off a feed from alternate captain Kyle Armstrong.

Three minutes later Lakehead retaliated and Alcock got his second on the evening past Antonio Mastropietro.

Refusing to go down without a fight, the Stingers kept firing shots at McDonald but couldn’t get anything past him, not until rookie Taylor Lambke got his sixth of the season past him with just barely three minutes left on the clock to re-tie the game at 3-3.

Overtime solved nothing despite Lakehead getting its chances, but all it took was one shootout goal from the Thunderwolves’ Mike Hammond to give the Stingers just one point in a 4-3 loss.

Game Two Gets Worse

Saturday’s game wasn’t as close for the Stingers.

The Thunderwolves struck in the first minute when defenceman Mitch Fillman got a goal past Mastropietro.

They added another just over three minutes later when Jake Carrick scored what would be the eventual game winner at 4:12.

Nearing the end of the opening frame, Concordia cut the Lakehead lead in half when captain George Lovatsis converted a powerplay goal while Carrick sat in the box for roughing.

The animosity picked up early in the second after Carrick and Stingers defenceman Marley Keca exchanged roughing minors, and Concordia forward Mark Belvedere received two minutes for checking from behind, which is automatically followed by a 10-minute misconduct.

After Alcock scored his third goal in two games nearing the 15-minute mark for the Thunderwolves, everything began to really unravel.

Lakehead defender Nathan Bruyere was given a two and a 10 for checking to the head, with the automatic misconduct. The six-foot-four Bruyere had been targeting Stingers all game long.

The final straw happened at the 8:27 mark of the final period when Thunderwolves’ Trevor Gamache started chirping and poking at Stingers’ defenseman Adam Nugent-Hopkins.

The Stingers’ rookie defenceman had had enough and asked if Gamache wanted to drop the gloves and the two went at it.

The two exchanged punches before the linesmen intervened, but in the melee Nugent-Hopkins received an additional punch before the two were split up.

Both players were immediately ejected from the game and will now each have to sit out their teams’ next games as per CIS rules and regulations.

Coach Figsby was quick to defend Nugent-Hopkins following the scrap.

“Their biggest guy was taking liberties with his slashing behind the play all night, and he challenged Adam, and Adam did not back down,” said Figsby.

“Even though he gave up about six inches and 40 lbs, Adam still had the better of the tilt, until the linesman got in between and their guy threw the free punch while the linesman had Adam wrapped up.”

Nugent-Hopkins was also up in arms about the play of Gamache throughout the game.

“Their team was a dirty group that loved to run their mouths. [Gamache] was definitely the worst of them, and as I came on he stuck Heinsy [Olivier Hinse] a couple of times. He was about to skate off so I asked him to go,” said Nugent-Hopkins.

“He obliged. He got one good one as I was going down. I was just fed up with the bullshit.”

The Stingers kept trying to fight for loose pucks and get a couple back to even the score but the Thunderwolves were too strong, winning 3-1 and raising their season record to 9-1-0.

Despite only earning one out of a possible four points this past weekend, coach Figsby saw some bright spots within the tilts.

“Both games were really tight,” said Figsby. “We hit more goal posts than I care to talk about. Our kids battled really hard and played really well.”