Stingers End Downward Spiral with Huge Victory

Men’s Hockey Team Goes On The Offensive in Big Way

SportsDavid S. Landsman — Published November 25, 2013

Friday night versus the visiting Brock Badgers, the Stingers lit the roof on fire as each player contributed to a 9-2 win.

“It’s a huge victory tonight, huge,” said head coach Kevin Figsby. “We weren’t expecting that at all. We had some objectives going into tonight and that was to accomplish everything we talked and worked on all week at practice. The gameplan was to not worry about the outcome but rather the input.”

Captain George Lovatsis echoed his coach’s comments.

“After coming off a small losing streak, it’s definitely nice to get that win,” said Lovatsis. “It’s one of those games we can be fortunate that everything went our way.”

Alternate captain Olivier Hinse, who hadn’t scored in three consecutive games, led the way with a hat-trick, including two goals in the first eight minutes. On the Stingers’ first power play the team looked even stronger, with Lovatsis coming close on two opportunities.

With the team up a pair late in the first, the Stingers’ other alternate captain Kyle Armstrong put one past Badgers goaltender Dalton McGrath. Thirty-one seconds later Lovatsis got his reward, putting Concordia up with a commanding 4-0 lead after the first frame.

Lovatsis, in his fifth year playing for Concordia, recorded his 100th point of his career last weekend at Lakehead. Figsby praised Lovatsis’ performance.

“George’s objective was to get three shots on goal,” said Figsby. “Instead he went out there, had eight shots on net, and scored two goals.”

Just over four minutes into the second period, the Badgers finally got on the board after a poor turnover by the Concordia defence allowed Dylan MacEachern to skate in alone and push the puck past Stingers’ goalie Mastropietro.

“After coming off a small losing streak, it’s definitely nice to get that win […] It’s one of those games we can be fortunate that everything went our way.”
—Stingers’ captain, George Lovatsis

33 seconds later, however, Lovatsis potted his second of the evening on the power play.

After the Badgers reduced the gap to 5-2, the Stingers came roaring back again. Less than a minute after the Brock goal, rookie blueliner Gabriel Bourret wired a shot from the point which eluded McGrath. The goal was Bourret’s first-career Canadian Interuniversity Sport goal. He also added three assists in a solid four-point game.

The offence was way too strong for Brock to handle, as the team fared no better in the third period against the Stingers.

Three minutes into the final stanza it was time for another rookie to score his first CIS goal; this time was forward Francis Beauregard who scored a five-hole goal past McGrath, who was left hung out to dry by Brock University head coach Murray Nystrom.

“Beauregard didn’t play the first six games, but he’s played the last two; he’s probably going to be one of the hardest hitters in CIS hockey,” said coach Figsby. “He’s worked hard every day and deserved every minute of his ice time.”

Rookie Taylor Lambke scored his seventh goal of his rookie campaign five minutes later.

Halfway through the third, Figsby rested starting goalie Mastropietro to give backup tender Paul Bourbeau a taste of CIS play. He stopped all 10 shots he faced, including a beauty close-range glove save.

“We wanted to let [Bourbeau] get some game time,” said Figsby. “He’s got his own confidence now. We got two goaltenders with tremendous confidence and that’s what we need. We’re going to need that going down the stretch.”

Hinse completed his hat-trick at the 12:18 mark of the third after the goal rolled on the goal line before getting pushed over by Hinse.

The Stingers were way too much for the Badgers, outshooting them by a staggering 55-33 margin. Recording their third win of the season was big, but the margin was bigger—winning for the second time by seven goals this season.

The big win gave them a welcome confidence boost ahead of their next game against the York Lions on Saturday.

“It gives us confidence for sure, but we don’t get to get too confident,” said Lovatsis. “Playing a tough team like York, who are off to a good start won’t be easy, but we’ll play high intensity.”