Stingers Continue Hot Start

Men’s Hockey Team Posts Back-to-Back Wins

SportsDavid Kaufmann — Published October 26, 2010

The Stingers’ men’s hockey team claimed back-to-back 3-2 victories over the Nipissing Lakers and Toronto Varsity Blues at Ed Meagher Arena last week.

“I didn’t think we played a full 60 minutes tonight, but I thought we played well enough to win, and we did win,” said Concordia head coach Kevin Figsby following Thursday’s win over the Lakers.
Meanwhile the Stingers had a seventh player playing for them, as Concordia’s athletics department invited its athletes to the game.

“When the football and rugby guys got together and sat behind the bench tonight and with the women’s hockey team, it was pretty exciting for our guys to feel the fellow Stingers’ support behind them,” said Figsby.
Stingers centre Derek Famulare, who scored the winning goal, had a similar opinon.

“We went to a football game at the beginning of the year, we rooted for [the team] and it was really nice that they returned the favour,” he said.

It took a little while before either team would make a move, but the Stingers woke the crowd up midway through the first when left-winger Daniel Michalsky connected on a pass from centre George Lavatsis to go up 1-0.

In the second period, the Lakers’ play became undisciplined early on when defenceman Jason Gray received a tripping penalty.

“I thought we had a few bad decisions in our actions taking penalties,” said Lakers head coach Mike McParland. The result was Stingers centre Kyle Kelly banging in a loose puck on the powerplay to go up 2-0.
While the Stingers enjoyed a 30-18 shot advantage after two periods of play, the Lakers pulled within a goal when defenceman John Quarrie deflected a shot past Stingers goaltender Maxime Joyal. Less than two minutes later, Lakers forward Dan Watt fired what Figsby described as a “knuckle ball that dropped on Joyal” and snuck by him to tie the score up.

For about 18 minutes into the third period, it seemed like the Lakers were going to steal a point.
“I think we were an equal opponent, if not better at times,” said McParland.

However, Famulare dashed Nipissing’s comeback hopes when he connected on a pass from Kelly and centre Alexis Piette to score the winning goal.

While the Stingers weren’t playing their best hockey, Figsby said he believes his players had midterms on their minds.

“Some of the guys weren’t totally focused on athletics; they were still focused on their academics. But I think what we got was a solid effort when the game got tight to play well enough to win,” said Figsby.

The Stingers will try to add to their 5-1 start when they take on the Lakers away from home this Friday. Puck-drop is slated for 7:30 p.m.

This article originally appeared in Volume 31, Issue 11, published October 26, 2010.