Huskies score late to take game one
ROUYN-NORANDA, Que. – The 2016 Presidents Cup final series kicked off Wednesday night as the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies and Shawinigan Cataractes faced off at the Iamgold Arena. It was a battle of the QMJHL’s top two teams from the regular season with the Huskies and Cataractes finishing first and second respectively in the standings.
It took three-quarters of the opening period to get the first goal of the game. Samuel Girard fired a point-shot past Chase Marchand on a powerplay to give the visiting Cataractes a 1-0 lead. Dmytro Timashov and Alexis D’Aoust picked up the assists at 15:42.
Exactly two minutes later A.J. Greer tied the game for the Huskies with his eigth post-season goal. Martins Dzierkals and Zachary Lauzon got helpers as we sat tied 1-1 at 17:42. The score remained that way until the third period when the Shawinigan powerplay unit capitalized again.
Off a pass from Cavan Fitzgerald, Gabriel Gagne found twine and put the Cataractes up by a goal under five minutes into the third. Dennis Yan also added an assist. Later in the frame Dzierkals set up Philippe Myers to once again tie the game, this time at 2-2. The Huskies second powerplay marker of the evening came with Julien Nantel also notching an assist.
One of the Huskies trade period acquisitions, overage blueliner Nikolas Brouillard scored with under two minutes to spare giving his squad a 3-2 advantage. Myers and Francis Perron each had a helping hand on the go-ahead tally. Gabriel Fontaine would score an empty-netter to seal a game one victory and a 1-0 series lead for Rouyn-Noranda.
