That Hurt

Stingers risk not making post season in humiliating defeat

SportsAndrew Maggio — Published February 9, 2012

The McGill Redmen got revenge for last week’s home loss to Concordia by routing the Stingers 5-0 at the Ed Meagher Arena Wednesday night in the 25th annual Corey Cup game.

“From an overall performance we were flat tonight,” said Stingers head coach Kevin Figsby.

McGill forward Maxime Langelier-Parent found the back of the net twice and Benoit Levesque picked up three assists in a decisive victory for the top spot in the country.

“We all knew it was a must-win and we didn’t show up. Now we just need to move on and recognize how important our next game is and play to win.” Stingers forward George Lovatsis

Stingers goaltender Nick Champion was kept busy, facing an incredible 50 shots compared to counterpart Hubert Morin, who had to make 23 saves for the shutout; none of them overly-difficult. The Redmen offense was paced by their strong powerplay, scoring twice with the man-advantage.

“That was a rough one. We didn’t play well at all,” said Stingers center George Lovatsis. “We got into penalty trouble early and they capitalized, and we couldn’t recover after that.”

Figsby shared his sentiments. “Not the performance we were anticipating, nor the performance we wanted,” he said. “I thought they out-hustled us, they were first on the puck all night. We just have to regroup for our next game now.”

This was a game must-win for both teams as the Stingers were trying to clinch a playoff spot and the Redmen were trying to take back and secure the top spot in the country after Concordia bumped them into third with last week’s victory.

The Stingers play their final league game Saturday at 3:00 p.m. against the Carleton Ravens in what will be the team’s most important game of the year. Win, and they’re in the playoffs; lose, and they risk missing out, unless the get some help from other teams around the league.

Lovatsis and his teammates were aware of the squandered opportunity, a sentiment notably present in the room post-game.

“Frustrating. Quiet,” said Lovatsis in describing the mood. “We all knew it was a must-win and we didn’t show up. Now we just need to move on and recognize how important our next game is and play to win.”