Lakers win 4th straight over Stingers

Lakers forward Ryan Maunu chased a rebound in front of Stinger goalie Brock McGillis. Photo by Chris Dawson.

Nipissing hosted the University of Concordia Stingers on Friday night; a team whom they beat 8-2 earlier this season and while the score was tigher the result was the same as the Lakers won 4-1 and improved to 4-1-1 on the season to maintain top spot in the OUA East Division standings.

It didn’t take the Lakers long to get into the box, at the 34 second mark of the first period Matt Lahey received a slashing minor. Two roughing penalties were handed to Josh McKinnon of Nipissing and Marc-Andre Rizk in the scrum that ensued.

Andrew Marcoux looked like he had put Nipissing up 1-0 at the 2:50 mark but the goal was disallowed, and shortly after Nathan Hewitt took a minor for high-sticking.

Matt Lahey would put the Lakers on the board first when he took a feed from Ryan Maunu after a face-off, which gave him a wide-open cage to shoot at, and he scored his third of the season at the 12:35 mark of the first.

Nipissing got their first powerplay of the game shortly after when Michael Blundon took a slashing penalty, and on that same power play Nathan Hewitt tipped in a Josh McKinnon shot at 14:51.

Concordia’s Nicolas Sciangula took a tripping penalty at 17:25 of the first to give Nipissing their second powerplay of the game. Brock McGillis saved the Stingers from going down 3-0 with an amazing glove save and they eventually killed off the penalty.

Nathan Hewitt took a cross-checking penalty with 16 seconds left in the first period to give Concordia their first powerplay of the game, most of which was played in Concordia’s zone. Shots were tied at 13 after the first frame. The Lakers would kill off the penalty at the beginning of the second and almost immediately score when Sam Hopewell would put one past McGillis on a feed from Nathan Hewitt at 1:51 of the second.

At 3:31 Tyler Riel took a slashing penalty to put Nipissing a man down for the third time, but Concordia’s powerplay was short lived as 66 seconds later Marc-Andre Rizk took a slashing penalty.

The rest of the second period was pretty quiet until Dan Watt took a hooking call at 16:54, a penalty that the Lakers would eventually kill off.

At the end of the second stanza the Lakers went to the locker room still up 3-0 and ahead 28-20 in shots on goal.

The 3:25 mark of the third saw another Lakers goals get disallowed this time due to a high stick.

Both the Lakers and Stingers took coincidental minors for roughing after the whistle at 6:21; Pryde for the Lakers and Van Wieren for Concordia.

Nipissing would score yet another at 10:07 of the third when Andrew Marcoux barried a Matt Lahey feed in the back of the net; Ryan Maunu also assisted on the goal.

Kyle Cantlon’s shutout bid would end at 15:41 when he let in a weak shot from Concordia’s Kyle Kelly to narrow the gap to three.

Marc-Andre Rizk would put the Stingers down a man for the fourth time of the night at 17:22 when took a hooking penalty, but John Quarrie would take a slashing penalty shortly thereafter to nullify Nipissing’s powerplay.

However, the clock would run dry on this game and Nipissing would win their fourth of the season on Friday night – 4-1.

Coach Mike McParland said after the game that many things contributed to his team’s fourth win of the season.

“It’s the speed, naturally,” McParland said. “Tonight it was a combination of that and our power play to get us that second goal.”

The Lakers were 100% on the penalty kill on Friday night and McParland attributes it to his team working on it in practice all week.

Mike McParland was visibly frustrated with the game’s officiating and said he’d like to see some changes.

“I would like to see them call the penalties,” McParland said looking visibly irritated as the Stingers appeared to take a lot of liberties on captain Matt Lahey.

“A slash against us is two minutes, but when they slash and break our guy’s stick in half it’s no penalty…a guy on our team probably has a broken hand.”

Laker goalie, Kyle Cantlon stopped all but one of Concordia’s 45 shots in the win, but he said it was a team effort.

“We’ve got scoring from all four lines,” Cantlon said. “Our ‘D’ has stepped up and played solid.”

Nipissing hits heads eastward on highway 17 tomorrow to Ottawa to play the Gee Gee’s. They host those same Gee Gee’s next Friday at Memorial Gardens, game time is 7:00 P.M.