Tigres spoil the party, top Cats 3-2
SHAWINIGAN, Que. – Wednesday evening at Centre Gervais Auto, the Victoriaville Tigres were in town to battle the Shawinigan Cataractes in head coach Claude Bouchard’s home debut in Shawinigan.
However, the Tigres spoiled the party early as Pascal Laberge capitalized on a slip up by Philippe Cadorette to make it a 1-0 lead for the visitors. The unassisted marker game at 5:48 of the opening frame.
Dennis Yan had a response less than a minute later as he fired his 30th goal of the season past James Povall to even the game at a goal apiece. Nicholas Welsh and Dmytro Timashov grabbed helpers.
Jonathan Deschamps took a tripping minor midway through the period giving Victoriaville a man advantage. The Tigres took full advantage of the opportunity with Marc Beckstead potting the powerplay marker and his 14th on the year. Laberge and Vincent Lanoue added assists.
Fast forward to the third period where the visiting team would extend their lead. Alexandre Goulet found Nicolas Latulippe who found twine at 2:54 to give the Tigres a 3-1 lead. Jacob Lapierre had the other assist.
With just under a minute remaining in the game, Brandon Gignac tried to kickstart a Cataractes comeback with a goal to cut their deficit to just one. Mathieu Olivier and Gabriel Gagne got on the scoresheet in the assist column.
Despite pulling the goalie for an extra attacker immediately after the goal, Shawinigan was unable to get the equalizer and fell 3-2 to the Tigres on home ice.
