EDMUNDSTON, New Brunswick – After three weeks of receiving an honorable mention among the best teams in the Canadian Junior Hockey League, the Edmundston Blizzard has just risen to 19th place on the national scene.
In the past week, the Blizzard had two wins (4-3 Wednesday against Campbellton and 4-1 Saturday against Valley) and fell short 5-4 in shootout against Grand Falls on Sunday.
Emery Olauson’s squad is still on a roll. In the past 23 games, the team has only been beaten twice in regulation time (14-2-1-6). The Blizzard (27-8-1-6, 61 points) is nine points behind league’s overall leaders, the Summerside Western Capitals (34-6-0-2, 70 points) which saw their rankings slide from second to fourth place in the country. The two teams still have 10 games left before the end of the recular season.
While individual stats have been dropping wildly in recent days, the Blizzard has also broken a team record for most goals in a season. The 190 goals in 42 games are one more than last year. The difference between goals for and goals against is also the highest this season (+47 – 190 GF, 143 GA) compared to the +44 of the first season in 2017-2018. Same observation for the power play statistics which show an efficiency rate of 25.5% this season compared to 23.2% in 2018-2018.
The Blizzard has 61 points, 15 less than in its first campaign. With 10 regular season games remaining, this record is within reach, but preparation for the “real” season (playoffs) is certainly more on the minds of the coaching staff.
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Photo
Blizzard is ranked 19th in the country. Photo Percy Picard
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Contact: Hugues Chiasson, vice-president communications – The Edmundston Blizzard; (506) 740-0623 – cell phone