EDMUNDSTON, New Brunswick – No snow, no problem! The blizzard turned into a violent, devastating storm at the Jean-Daigle Centre on Thursday night, and the Fredericton Red Wings took the brunt of it.
The Edmundston Blizzard scored six unanswered goals in a frenzied third period en route to a 10-2 triumph. In the process, the Blizzard took a 1-0 lead in the Eastlink North Division best-of-seven semifinal series of the Metalfab MHL Cup.
Philippe Collette had a dream night with four goals and an assist. Carl-Anthony Massé collected the same number of points with five assists. Dominic LeBlanc (1g, 2a), Alexis Jacques (1g, 2a), Félix Bédard, Ryan Loveless, Ben Wallace and Marco Martin rounded out the Blizzard attack.
Zach Bishop and Francis Woods found the back of the net for the Wings.
Fredericton got off to a flying start, taking the lead in the 32nd second. The first period ended 2-2. The Blizzard then took control with eight consecutive goals. Edmundston led 4-2 after 40 minutes.
Both teams unleashed 33 shots each. Nicholas Sheehan made the key saves at the right times in the first two periods. Yacine Chemrouk was the Wings’ goalkeeper.
The Blizzard’s ten goals are a record for a game at the the Jean-Daigle Centre. Edmundston scored six goals in 9:20 of the third period, including five in exactly 5 minutes, another Edmundston franchise record. Collette became the fifth Blizzard player to score four goals in a game, following in the footsteps of Sam King, Chrystopher Collin, Tristan Fortin and Olivier Coulombe. Collette became the first of the group to score four goals in Edmundston, much to the delight of the noisy crowd on Thursday night. What’s more, the 18-year-old forward from Saint-Antoine tallied five points in a game for the third time in his career, a Blizzard record.
Collette (1st), Massé (2nd) and LeBlanc (3rd) earned the game’s stars. The series moves to Fredericton on Saturday (7 p.m.) for Game 2. The teams will then return to Edmundston next Tuesday (7:30 p.m.).
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Photo
Philippe Collette tore apart the Red Wings defense, scoring four goals and one assist on Thursday night. Photo Percy Picard
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Contact: Hugues Chiasson, vice-president communications – The Edmundston Blizzard; (506) 740-0623 – cell phone