Stingers 5, Mustangs 4: Goals and hits galore as Concordia emerges victorious
A back-and-forth slugfest saw the Stingers come away on top
The Concordia University Stingers men’s hockey team returned to its winning ways on Nov. 16, defeating the Western Mustangs 5-4 at Ed Meagher Arena in the Pink in the Rink game for cancer awareness.
Concordia maintained its lead atop the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) East standings, improving to a 12-0-2 record. Western fell to 7-3-1, but held on to first place in the OUA West.
“[Pink in the Rink] is an amazing cause,” Stingers head coach Marc-André Elément said. “There’s a lot of people with cancer, so if we can do a little something to help them, that’s good on us. Our leadership and our players did a great job raising awareness and working last night at the women’s game. It’s great to see the support.”
The Stingers fell behind early, as Mustangs centre Lawson Sherk tapped in a centering pass just two minutes in the game. Centre Andrew Bruder doubled the lead roughly eight minutes in with a top-corner finish. Despite Concordia forward Charles Savoie’s close-range goal 30 seconds later, a 2-1 scoreline at intermission saw the Stingers trailing at the end of the first period for the first time all season.
Concordia fought back and equalized on defenceman Nathan Lavoie’s nifty finish in the second period. With six minutes remaining, winger Blake Richardson smacked a rebound through the legs of Western goalie Matteo Drobac, putting the Stingers ahead.
Richardson praised the team’s response after going down early.
“It wasn’t something that we were used to, but I think it’s good that we play these types of games during the season,” Richardson said. “Now if it happens in more important games down the stretch or in the playoffs we know how to react in those situations.”
Throughout the game, the teams traded bumps and hits as pressure built until the point of explosion in the third period.
First, Concordia defenceman Sean Larochelle extended the lead on a quick strike around Drobac’s pad, and Richardson fired in his second goal of the night to put the Stingers up 5-2.
Then, with under five minutes remaining, tensions boiled over after Stingers defenceman Christopher Inniss hammered Western defender Jake Gravelle at centre ice. Inniss drew a five-minute major for kneeing, and the ensuing brawl resulted in six players receiving 10-minute misconduct penalties.
Stirred perhaps by the outburst, Western attempted to stage a comeback as the game wound down. Defender Drew Wawrow pulled a goal back with a long-range finish, and a power-play rebound with two minutes remaining allowed fellow defender Jack York to bring the game to 5-4. Concordia held on and escaped with the victory.
Overall, the teams combined for 91 penalty minutes on 20 infractions, with Elément critical of the way the game got out of hand.
“It was 5-2 and the game was almost over there, and then we got undisciplined,” Elément said. “So we have to learn from that and look at the consequences.”
Richardson appreciated the team’s ability to stay together through a tough matchup.
“We’re all brothers, and I think it’s showing on the ice,” Richardson said. “Even when we're having down times in games we just stick together and we know we’re going to get through it. And we showed that today—it wasn’t pretty, but we got it done.”
Concordia now turns its attention to Brock University for their matchup with the Badgers on Friday, Nov. 22. Puck drop is scheduled for 6 p.m.
