Power Down

Stingers Powerplay Comes Up Short Versus the Voyageurs in a 4-2 Loss

SportsDavid Kelly — Published January 26, 2015 | Updated January 27, 2015 at 2:03am

The Stingers fought to the very end, but were unable to overcome the speed and solid goaltending that the Voyageurs presented.

“We just didn’t execute today,” said Stingers head coach Kevin Figsby. “We had a couple of guys that didn’t contribute the way that they needed to today, and that was the difference in the one goal.”

The Stingers opened the scoring just under a minute and a half into the game when Dany Potvin hit the back of the net.

The Voyageurs replied just over a minute later when Graham Yeo jammed a puck past Stingers goalie Robin Billingham, and added a powerplay goal that period off the stick of Nicolas Dionne.

All was quiet in the second period, but just 25 seconds into the third, Voyageurs forward Bradley MacDonald wired his first of two goals into the Stingers’ net, extending their lead to 3-1.

With 13 minutes left in the third period, Stingers forward Kyle Armstrong tallied his third goal of the season, bringing the score to 3-2 in favour of the Voyageurs.

“They had scored on the first shift of the period and heads went down a bit on the bench,” Armstrong said. “The quicker you can get the next goal after that, the better.”

Heads went back up on the Stingers bench after the goal, and the possibility of tying the game seemed to be within reach.

“We were right in the game and we thought we were coming back,” said Stingers captain Olivier Hinse. “It’s always good to have a goal late in the game to give us momentum to try to score again, but
a bad bounce at the end and they scored again.”

Even with the goalie pulled late in the third, the Stingers were unable to put the tying goal past Voyageurs goalie Charlie Millen, who turned aside 37 of the 39 shots he faced.

“We’re not shooting pucks on net convincingly, and we’re trying to be too fancy,” Hinse said. “We’ve just got to go back to the basics.”

The Stingers’ usually-potent powerplay was nowhere to be found, especially in the third period when they were unable to capitalize on three separate occasions.

“I thought our powerplay should’ve been better all day today,” said Figsby. “We made some bad decisions on the powerplay today, and it ended up costing us.”

With just two games remaining in the season, the Stingers will try to go over their game plan to see where improvements can be made. One thing that they did well against the Voyageurs was scoring the first goal, according to Figsby, and that’s a trend that he would like to see continue into the playoffs.

“We have to remind ourselves that you always want to go into the playoffs on a winning streak,” Armstrong said. “When you look at the teams that go on long playoff runs in the NHL, it’s always the ones that are hot.”

Whether or not they are hot, the Stingers will be focused on ending the season with strong play and effort from everybody.

“We just need to have two good games to end the season, and make sure that we’re all on the same page to start the playoffs,” Hinse said. “It’s the biggest time of the year.”

Video by Evgenia Choros