YARMOUTH, Nova Scotia – Alex Arsenault will remember this game at the Maritime Centre in Yarmouth for a long time. The young man from Saint-Charles, who just celebrated his 17th birthday just two weeks ago, literally cut in pieces the Mariners’ defense by tallying two goals and four assists when he led the Edmundston Blizzard to an 8-5 win on Saturday in front of 1,210 Nova Scotian spectators.
The ironic thing is that Arsenault accumulated the same number of points on November 2nd than he had in his previous 14 games this season (4g, 2a).
Another feat is that defenseman Chase Carter scored his first-ever goal in the Maritime Junior Hockey League in his 49th game in the Blizzard uniform. He also added two assists in the game. Carter is on a five-game scoring streak.
Félix Laniel had a three-point night as well with one goal and two assists. Aaron Brown added two goals to his record including the winning one at the end of the second period. Mitchell McLeod and Paul Leroux also beat Justin Sumarah.
Matt Barron (2g), David Vaysberg (1g, 3a), Kaleb Boudreau (1g, 2a) and Sam Gillis (1g) beat the Blizzard goalies.
Nine of the 13 goals of the evening were scored on the power play. The Blizzard scored five times in those situations. Unsurprisingly, Arsenault earned the game’s first star, the second goin to Vaysberg and the third to Carter.
The game was played under some deplorable incidents. Unfortunately for him, Blizzard goaltender Ewan MacDonald had to come to the rescue of a teammate and was expelled from the game for being the third man in the brawl. It all happened with 2:43 to go in the 2nd period. Antoine Lyonnais was called upon to replace MacDonald who allowed three goals in 37:17 of action. Lyonnais gave up two goals in 22:43. The Blizzard outshot the Mariners 33-32.
Curiously enough, the Blizzard has always excelled on Nova Scotia’s rinks. Since joining the league three seasons ago, Edmundston is 13-2-2-1 in Nova Scotia. The team only has two losses in regulation time occurred during the 2017-2018 campaign. Since then, they are 6-0-2-1. This year, the Blizzard have four wins in as many games. Edmundston will return to Nova Scotia for two more games in February.
The Blizzard (11-4-0-0) ranks second in the Eastlink North Division, four points behind the Summerside Western Capitals (13-3-0-0). Emery Olauson’s squad will face the Fredericton Red Wings on Thursday (7 pm) to end its longest five-game streak on the road of the season.
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Photo
Alex Arsenault was everywhere on the ice on Saturday in Yarmouth. He had himself a six point-game. Photo archives Digiphoto
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Contact: Hugues Chiasson, vice-president communications – The Edmundston Blizzard; (506) 740-0623 – cell phone