February 9, 2010 Sports

Ravens leave Stingers weak and weary

After clinching a playoff spot, men’s hockey team gets blown out by Carleton

by David Kaufmann

Ravens forward Ryan Berard steals the puck. PHOTO ESTHER BERNARD

Concordia 1
Carleton 6

After two good outings, the Stingers men’s hockey team came out flat against the Carleton Ravens last Saturday in a 6-1 loss at the Ed Meagher Arena. This comes less than 24 hours after dominating the Royal Military College Paladins to a 4-2 win and just days after a shootout loss to the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières Patriotes.

Although the Stingers played a game the night before, head coach Kevin Figsby thought it was no excuse, considering Carleton was in the same boat.

“I thought fatigue was a big factor in the third period, but Carleton played better than we did and they deserved to win,” Figsby said.

Stingers right winger Marc-André Rizk, who scored the lone goal for his team, was equally disappointed. When asked if his team was riding on a high from the previous two games he responded by saying, “Maybe a little bit, but it’s not an excuse. Every team has the same schedule as us.”

The Stingers got off to a slow start, but managed to compete with the Ravens in the first period. The Ravens scored first when forward Chris Downey caught the Stingers defence sleeping

for his first of the season. Carleton shelled Stingers goalie Maxime Joyal for the rest of the period, forcing him to make 15 saves.

Joyal matched his first period save total in the second but couldn’t stop centre Joey Manley when he connected on a pass from forwards Brandon MacLean and Ryan Bérard for his sixth of the season. Toward the end of the period, it seemed like the Stingers had some life when Rizk scored a shorthanded goal, his fifth of the season.

But whatever life Concordia showed in the first two periods quickly faded when they allowed four straight goals from the opposition.

Even though the Ravens emerged victorious, head coach Fred Parker wasn’t terribly impressed with his team’s
play.

“I think we played well enough to win,” said Parker. “I don’t think either team played well, but we played better than Concordia.”

This was a game the Stingers would like to forget heading into the post-season. Figsby, however, remained upbeat.

“We started the season 0 and 11 and we’re now in the playoffs,” he commented. “That’s a tremendous amount of adversity that we’ve faced [...]. But we keep struggling and we keep working and we keep moving in a positive direction, so I can’t get too upset with today’s loss.”