EDMUNDSTON, New Brunswick – The Edmundston Blizzard jumped out to a 3-0 lead and held off the Campbellton Tigers to snatch the first victory, 4-3, in the opening game of the Eastlink North Division final series of the Metalfab MHL Cup played Tuesday night in front of another noisy crowd at the Jean-Daigle Centre.
The 2,326 spectators were certainly under the impression that the Blizzard were heading for an easy win when they took a 3-0 lead early in the second period. But, several times during the season in this league, 3-0 leads were quickly erased.
The first period belonged to Émile Fournier, who scored his 7th and 8th goals of the playoffs on power plays. The big forward from Sainte-Luce, Québec, had scored a goal in all six of the Blizzard’s playoff games so far. He is the only rookie on the team to have had two two-goal games in the playoffs, and the first to score two power-play goals in the same period. Defenseman Keenan Gillis had also scored twice in overtime situations in a game during the Blizzard’s first playoffs in 2018, but he had done it in two different periods.
Up 2-0, the Blizzard built a three-goal lead at 3:01 of the second period thanks to another rookie, Will Carroll, who shook the ropes for the third time in the playoffs.
A small avalanche of goals followed, with the Tigers scoring two quick goals, the first at 6:17 (Thomas Larouche, 4th) and at 6:48 (Kyle MacIntyre, 2nd). However, the Blizzard made it 4-2 thanks to William Labranche (1st) at 8:54. Then, at 17:51, the visitors made it 4-3 (Alexis Jacques, 2nd) and that was it, with both teams unable to find the back of the net in the third frame.
The Blizzard doubled the Tigers 40-20 in the shots column. Adam Rouleau (Tigers) and Austin Caley (Blizzard) were the two netminders.
William Labranche (1st, 1g, 1a), Émile Fournier (2nd, 2g) and Philippe Collette (3rd, 2a) earned the stars of the hotly contested clash. Both teams had identical power-play conversion statistics (2 in 3).
Blizzard and Tigers will get back on the ice at the Campbellton Memorial Civic Centre for the second game of the series on Friday (7 p.m.). The following day, the two teams return to the Jean-Daigle Centre rink (7:30 p.m.).
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Photo
William Labranche had an excellent game with a goal and an assist. He scored the winning goal in the second period. Photo Percy Picard
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Source: Hugues Chiasson, communications co-ordinator – Edmundston Blizzard – 506 740-0623 – (cell.)