Concordia takes game one in Oshawa

OSHAWA, Ont. - The UOIT men's hockey team kicked off their playoff run at home against the Concordia Stingers. Unfortunately for the Ridgebacks, the Stingers proved to be the stronger team winning by a score of 4-1.

Game two will go on Friday night in Montreal as the Ridgebacks look to extend the series to three games.

Things were looking good for the Ridgebacks early on as they were able to find a way to shut down the Stingers fast paced offence. It wasn't until late in the first period when Malik Johnson (Montreal, Que.) got called for hooking, that Massimo Carozza opened the scoring for the Stingers. Just moments later Carozza scored again when the Ridgebacks gave the puck up in front of their own net.

The first intermission came at a bad time for the Ridgebacks as they had just begun a two-man advantage power play before heading into the change room. Finding themselves flat in the second period, the Ridgebacks were unable to have much success breaking out of their own end. Eventually Concordia would capitalize on their strong offensive push and increase their lead to 3-0 when Antoine Masson put one over the shoulder of goaltender Brendan O'Neill (Ilderton, Ont.).

Down by three, the Ridgebacks needed to have a big third period if they wanted to complete the comeback. The period started off promising as Johnson was able to finish on a pass made by Mike Robinson (Stouffville, Ont.) from behind the net, putting them within two with just under 15 minutes left to play.

When Philippe Hudon scored the empty net fourth goal for the Stingers it finalized the Ridgebacks' fate of the first game in the OUA eastern quarter-finals.

Despite the loss, O'Neill posted a total of 39 saves for the Ridgebacks. The Stingers goaltender also had himself a game recording a total of 36 saves.

"We are in a tough spot now but we will hit the ice for practice and then go down to Montreal ready to battle it out for the next two games," said head coach Curtis Hodgins.

In the Ridgebacks lone playoff series win, they dropped the opening game to the Queen's Gaels and came back to win two straight. Last year against Concordia, UOIT won game one but lost games two and three in Montreal.

Source: UOIT Ridgebacks