February 16, 2010 Sports

Stingers almost take it

Controversial calls cost men’s hockey team dearly

by David Kaufmann

A scrum breaks out in front of Concordia’s net. PHOTOS RILEY SPARKS

McGill’s Alexandre Picard-Hooper nets the game winner.

The Stingers watch as the Redmen are awarded the Corey Cup

Concordia 3
McGill 4

In a game tainted by bad refereeing, the Stingers nearly did the impossible: the men’s hockey team almost beat McGill to win the 23rd Annual Corey Cup, a feat they have not performed since 2002.

Ultimately, the home team fell 4-3 in overtime last Friday at Ed Meagher Arena.
Going into the season’s last game before the playoffs, Stingers head coach Kevin Figsby had a clear message for his team.

“Follow the game plan to the finish!” he said. “We’re a young team; 50 per cent of our players are first-year. If they don’t get that message to their heads, then we’ll have problems. If they get that message through there then we’ll have tremendous success,” he added.

The Stingers certainly had enough support for the match. The entire Stingers athletic community was in attendance, including the national championship-winning men’s baseball team who were honoured prior to the opening faceoff.

Attendance aside, the game started off in McGill’s favour as right winger Francis Verreault-Paul wasted little time opening the scoring only 1:22 into the first. But the Stingers weren’t going to let their guests steal the show so easily. A few minutes later Stingers centre Kyle Kelly netted his ninth of the season after connecting from a pass from left winger Aléxandre Monahan.

Concordia got its first lead of the game later in the period when left winger Daniel Michalsky slipped one past Redmen goaltender Hubert Morin for his second of the season.
Referees threw a wrench in the Stingers’ victory plans in the second period. Centre Marc-André Rizk received a phantom call for goaltender interference. To add insult to injury, the Redmen got a questionable goal seconds after the call when defenceman Sébastien Rioux scored one off of a high stick.

Figsby was furious about both calls.

“I thought it was a horseshit call and I thought the high stick was a horseshit goal,” he said. “You’ve got to have better refereeing than that in a game like tonight’s,” he added.

In the second half of the period McGill pulled ahead when defenceman Benjamin Morse potted one on Stingers goaltender Maxime Joyal. But the Stingers came alive late in the third. Captain Marc-André Element posted himself in front of the net and deflected a pass off of centre Brad Gager to send the game into overtime.

Though the Stingers competed for 60 minutes, they burnt out in sudden death. McGill defenceman Alexandre Picard-Hooper caught Concordia sleeping as he scored the game winner early in the frame.

This was another aspect of the game that didn’t sit well with Figsby.
“I’m upset at the way we made that play at the end of the game. We talked about it in practice, we just didn’t execute it,” he said.

Figsby was, however, thrilled with the effort his players put forth. “I’m completely, completely satisfied with the way our team played tonight,” he said. “I thought our guys battled hard, I thought we competed hard and I thought we deserved to win.”

McGill head coach Jim Webster also had praise for the Stingers.

“I’m clearly giving Concordia credit for playing their best game against us. I thought they were more disciplined, and more organized,” he said.