Eagles Resume Road Trip With Loss In Val-d’Or
NOTES FROM THE GAME
– A William Provost hat trick and a 3/8 night on the power play helped pace the Val-d’Or Foreurs to an 8-5 victory over the Cape Breton Eagles on Wednesday night in Val-d’Or.
– Samuel Johnson & Ivan Ivan each delivered two goal, one assist nights for the Eagles while Jude Campbell scored his first goal since being traded to Cape Breton.
– Zach Biggar missed his second consecutive game for the Eagles due to an upper body injury while Angelo Fullerton didn’t play due to illness.
A fast paced first period seemed to only stop for goals, as the Foreurs jumped out to a 3-1 lead in the opening stanza. Provost opened the scoring before the six minute mark on a pass from Louis Robin. The goal was countered by some nifty stickhandling from Johnson who dangled around Nathan Drapeau before putting the puck over Mathys Fernandez to knot the score.
Val-d’Or reclaimed the lead on a fortunate break as Nathan Bolduc fired a long shot off the boards- it took a strange bounce to redirect towards the goal. Nicolas Ruccia got across to get his stick on it, but despite his save, the puck kept moving forward and went over the line. Before the period’s end, Provost collected his second of the net, redirecting the puck on a Mavrick Gauthier shot while he was creening Ruccia.
The Eagles got the start they needed to the third period- an Ivan ivan shot (or pass) attempt redirected off a Val-d’Or body in front and within the first minute, the Eagles had cut the lead to 3-2. But before the period was five minutes old, Provost countered with a one timer on the power play to restore the two goal edge.
The teams traded goals one more time before period’s end. First, a nice three way passing play for the Eagles: Charles Boutin passed to Johnson coming up the left wing, who dropped to a trailing Ivan for a power play marker. The goal was neutralized when Nathan Baril cut in towards the front of the net and beat Ruccia to make it a 5-3 score.
Val-d’Or opened their first three goal cushion of the night before the halfway mark of the final period on a power play marker from Thomas Larouche. Nathan Brisson added to the lead when he converted a pass from behind the net- following the goal there were fireworks as Conor Shortall tussled with Antoine Lagacé.
Shortall received the extra minor on the sequence, but the Eagles had some hope after not only killing the penalty but getting a short handed marker from Johnson to make the score 7-4. That was close as the score would get though- prior to period’s end, each team scored once more, Mavrick Gauthier for the Foreurs and in the final two minutes Campbell would jab the puck over the line to score his first in Eagle colours.
Fernandez took the win, stopping 27 of 32, while Ruccia took the loss, stopping 30 of 38 shots.
The Eagles will head north for their game tomorrow night in Rouyn-Noranda against the Huskies. Puck drop is 8 PM Atlantic time. The game is available for purchase online at https://bit.ly/3S4BaOZ and you can also hear all the action beginning with the pre-game show with Patrick McNeil at 7:30 PM AST on 1270 AM CJCB or online at www.cjcbradio.com
THREE STARS OF THE GAME
1. William Provost (Val-d’Or) 3 goals, 1 assist, 7 shots
2. David Doucet (Val-d’Or) 2 assists, 1 hit
3. Matis Ouellet (Val-d’Or) 2 assists
Scratches For Cape Breton: Zach Biggar (upper body injury), Angelo Fullerton (illness)
Scratches For Val-d’Or: William Blackburn (injury), Fréderic Potvin (injury), Emile Desjardins, Tommy-Lee Veira
Final Shots On Goal: 38-32 in favour of Val-d’Or
Cape Breton Power Play: 1/5
Val-d’Or Power Play: 3/8
