CAMPBELLTON, New Brunswick – Carl-Anthony Massé shook the pillars of the Campbellton Memorial Civic Centre on Friday night.
The forward scored his team’s first three goals and added an assist, giving the Edmundston Blizzard a 6-3 victory over the Campbellton Tigers in front of a noisy crowd of 1,786.
As he did many times in the playoffs, Carl-Anthony Massé opened the scoring early on at 1:15. But the Tigers replied at 18:31 (from Félix-Antoine Laflamme -1st of the playoffs) to tie the score. But the home team’s joy was short-lived, as Massé restored the Blizzard’s one-goal lead 19 seconds later.
The Tigers again created a 2-2 deadlock on Owen Underhill’s 6th goal of the series at 2:46 of the second period. But none other than Massé, with his third of the game and 6th of the playoffs, allowed the Blizzard to complete the second period with a 3-2 advantage. From then on, the Blizzard maintained their lead and cruised to their second playoff victory.
In the third period, Will Allen took matters into his own hands to score his 2nd and 3rd goals of the playoffs, the first at 0:54 and the second at 15:55. Allen was credited with the winning goal. Logan Mallaley (1st) made it 4-3 at 2:48, but the Blizzard replied twice in the last six minutes.
Émile Fournier scored his MHL leading 9th goal of the playoffs. For Fournier, it was a seventh straight game with at least one goal, a team mark he improves from game to game.
Defenseman Jake MacDonald picked up two assists in the win.
Goaltender Frédéric Cousineau had a strong game in front of the Blizzard cage, particularly on a penalty shot at 10:36 when he frustrated Ben Nicholson by catching the puck with his glove. In all, he faced 42 shots. He clearly had the upper hand over his opponent, Adam Rouleau, who saw 46 pucks fired in his direction.
The game’s first star went to Massé, who collected four points in the playoffs for the first time with the Blizzard. He collected a goal and three assists in a regular season game against the Truro Bearcats on January 18.
Ahead 2-0 in the best-of-seven Metalfab MHL Cup Eastlink North Division final series, the Blizzard will host the Tigers in the third game of the Battle of the North on Saturday, April 5 (7:30 PM). It’s a game that promises to draw the biggest crowd of the season at the the Jean-Daigle Centre, as all seats are sold out with a few standing tickets still to be sold.
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Photo
Carl-Anthony Massé was the spark plug for the Blizzard in Game 2 of the series against Campbellton. Photo archives Percy Picard
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Source: Hugues Chiasson, communications co-ordinator – Edmundston Blizzard – 506 740-0623 – (cell.)