EARLY STRUGGLES AND POWER PLAY WOES, THE GEE-GEES CAN’T MOUNT COMEBACK AGAINST THE CONCORDIA STINGERS
Despite being a formidable team over the past few years, the 3-5 Stingers entered the night as underdogs against the Gee-Gees this past Thursday. Led by OUA top goal scorer #89 Ty Hipkin, the Gee-Gees were poised to continue their winning ways in front of a large home crowd.
Unfortunately, the Gee-Gees came out sluggish, going down 2-0 early and not being able to mount a comeback against the strong goaltending and defensive play of the Stingers. Capped off by an empty net goal, the Gee-Gees fell 5-1, dropping a hard fought game against their Montreal rivals.
First Period
Less than a minute in, the Gee-Gees surrendered a stretch pass right up the middle leading to a breakaway. Luckily, freshman goalie #70 Félix Hamel stood tall to stop the opportunity. On the ensuing faceoff, however, the Gee-Gees were caught sleeping once again as Concordia found #38 Alex Gaudio wide open in the slot where he made no mistake burying it low on Hamel. The Stingers were up 1-0 just 49 seconds in.
The nightmare didn’t end there for the Gee-Gees. A minute later, after surrendering another odd-man rush, #9 Mathieu Cobetto-Roy would walk in from the left corner completely untouched by the dazed Gee-Gees defence and roof one high on Hamel to make it 2-0 Stingers into the opening stanza.
After the brutal opening minutes, they finally settled in. As the game went on, the National Championship rivalry from two years ago would reignite with both teams engaging in very physical play. The Gee-Gees also began pushing their agenda around the 15-minute mark, with the Gee-Gees drawing the first of three penalties in the next 10 minutes. Unfortunately, their free-flowing game was halted on all three of these power plays. Despite some creativity down low and one great passing play leading to an open net in the second power play, the Gee-Gees hit the post.
Despite the power play woes, Concordia’s defence deserves a lot of credit as they blocked multiple shots and goalie #33 Brady James remained perfect, stopping everything the Gee-Gees threw his way. At the end of the Gee-Gees power play onslaught, the Stingers would get one back at the end of the period. After some great stops from Hamel, including a great side-to-side one-timer save after all four Gee-Gees penalty killers got caught down low, the Gee-Gees would kill it off and end the period.
After the First Period: 2-0 Concordia
Second Period
The start of the second was just like watching a rewind of the first if you simply switched jerseys. Coming out of the gate, the Gee-Gees created a three-on-two with #82 Ethan Montroy finding the trailer on a cross ice-pass to #24 Justin Cloutier, who sniped one top shelf to halve the Concordia lead.
Unfortunately, the Gee-Gees could not completely replicate the first period, as after the goal the Stingers regained the upper hand, getting some quality O-zone time and forcing the Gee-Gees to take a timeout off an icing to relieve the pressure. This period was truly one of two halves, as despite the Concordia dominance for the following few minutes, by the 10-15 minute mark the Gee-Gees would reassert their dominance forcing Concordia’s James to stay sharp. Notably, he robbed the Gee-Gees on a beautiful two-on-one side-to-side butt-end save, stunning the home crowd.
The Stingers also showed their determination to maintain the lead. Following a two-on-one break with #9 William Provost beating the last Concordia defencemen with a beautiful toe drag, on the pass across that would have led to a certain goal, Concordia’s #21 Mathys Laurent hustled back to break up the chance in an incredible back check.
The Gee-Gees kept their foot on the gas for the next few minutes, but after multiple big hits on the boards in the neutral zone, completely against the run of play, the puck would pop out to two Concordia forwards and on the ensuing odd-man rush after Hamel couldn’t corral the initial shot. Concordia #2 Anthony Cliche then followed up the rebound, increasing the Concordia lead back to two. More importantly, on the goal, Hamel was hit which led to him having to be helped off the ice with a seemingly lower-body injury. Backup #31 Zach Dietz was then required to relieve the injured netminder.
While tested early by Concordia #13 Keanu Krenin, Dietz showed no signs of being cold and the Gee-Gees continued their pressure. However, despite a late power play, the Gee-Gees still couldn’t solve the Concordia goaltender, leading to a two-goal deficit to climb in the third.
After Second Period: 3-1 Concordia
Third Period
Compared to the high-flying action of the first two periods, the third told a completely different story. Being up two goals, Concordia resorted to a defensive game for the third, clogging up the middle, keeping players behind the puck, and slowing down the game as much as possible. Despite a couple of good chances, such as Montroy getting a deflection opportunity in the crease, they could not solve James and the Concordia defence.
With no luck in front of goal, and with 3:53 left on the clock, the game would be put on ice as, after a soft dump into the Gee-Gees zone from the other side of the red line. Dietz took a risk that did not pay off as, in a fifty-fifty race to the puck, he came out second best and left an empty net for Concordia’s #94 Lewis Gendron to bury the Stingers’ fourth of the game.
In the final moments, the Gee-Gees pulled their goalie, and despite generating a few chances, the Stingers put their bodies on the line blocking multiple shots, including a diving block on a Gee-Gees slot chance. The puck then fell to Concordia’s Gaudio to get his second of the game and put an exclamation point on the Stingers’ performance by sliding the puck into the empty net.
Final Score: 5-1 Concordia
Beyond the Boxscore
Despite the lopsided scoreline, there is no need to panic. Like many teams on hot streaks, the Gee-Gees came out of the gate extremely lackadaisical and were punished, surrendering two goals immediately. From this early deficit, the Gee-Gees were fighting an uphill battle the entire game and Concordia was able to settle into a defensive shape. Even though the Gee-Gees saw little capitalization on their chances, they showed creativity with great vision and aggressive plays to create chances.
Credit also needs to go to the Stingers, as once they got their two-goal lead there was no looking back; they sacrificed their bodies on numerous occasions, and their man between the pipes didn’t put a foot wrong all game, as evidenced by his first star honour.
The Gee-Gees will look to rebound as they travel to Montreal to face Concordia back-to-back in their home barn, and then return to Ottawa to face Queens on Friday night, Nov. 13.
