EDMUNDSTON, New Brunswick – Three quarter of the Edmundston Blizzard season are behind the northwestern team. Make way for the last 13 meetings in the 52-game campaign!
Emery Olauson’s squad will play seven of these 13 games at the Jean-Daigle Centre. This will be a golden opportunity to prepare for the playoffs which will begin at the end of the calendar, the last game of which will be played o March 6.
The Blizzard has certainly improved after the January shopping season during which the team strengthened its defensive defense by acquiring offensive skilled Evan White and goalie Marc-Antoine Bérubé-Jalbert and by counting on the arrival of forward Jérémy Duguay, a 4th round pick by the Blizzard in the 2018 MHL Draft who played the first half of this season with the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies.
And the Blizzard is counting on the second best offensive in the Maritimes. Its attack is possibly even better diversified than that of the overall leaders, the Summerside Western Capitals, whose top players Brodie MacArthur (87 points) and Kelly Muirhead (81 points) has collected a point in 84.4% of their team’s goals (199). The key will therefore be to sop this infernal duo which have received support from the excellent scorer Carson MacKinnon (12 points in 4 games) freshly arrived from a four-season career in the Q.
Other contenders for the title also added luster to their roster. And the parity is such in the MHL this season that it is difficult to predict with certainty the outcome of a game. While the Western Capitals (33-5-0-1, 67 pts) and the Blizzard (25-8-1-5, 56 pts) are the only playoff qualified teams at this time in the Eastlink North Division. And the quest for third and final spots are quite epic between the Fredericton Red Wings (23-14-3-0, 49 pts) and the Campbellton Tigers (19-12-3-2, 43 pts). The Tigers have four games in hand.
The Blizzard will be back on the ice at the Jean-Daigle Centre on Wednesday, January 29 (7:30 pm) hosting the Tigers. The game promises to be a good one as the last four clashes between these two rivals this season have ended in overtime or shootout.
Expert and independent supervisors in the Canadian Junior Hockey League have given the Blizzard an honorable mention for a third week in a row. The Western Capitals went from 4th to 2nd place.
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Photo
With Brock McLeod (10), Tristan Gagnon (71), Chrystopher Collin (9), Tommy Bertrand (7) and company, the Blizzard begins the fourth quarter of its season on Wednesday. Photo Percy Picard
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Contact: Hugues Chiasson, vice-president communications – The Edmundston Blizzard; (506) 740-0623 – cell phone