Jezegou hero as Titan beats Eagles
Titan captain Spencer Jezegou scored the winning goal with only 41 seconds to play in the third period as the Titan beat the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles 3-2 at Sydney’s Centre 200. With the win, the Titan snapped Cape Breton’s season-starting win streak at 6.
On the winning goal, Screaming Eagle defender Francis Meilleur failed to clear the puck from his zone. Jezegou stole the puck before initiating a give-and-go with Tomy Joly. Joly found Jezegou alone in front of Cape Breton goalie Christopher Holden who was beaten between the legs. It was Jezegou’s 6th goal of the season.
Both teams played a hotly contested game, with many on hand saying the game had a playoff-like feel. The result can be summed up by one key element: the team that committed the less mistakes won the contest. That was the case in the game’s dying moments as the Eagles’ Nicolas Chouinard took a needless penalty, tripping the Titan’s Maxime Renaud with only 2:49 left to play. Even if the winning goal wasn’t scored on the power play, the Screaming Eagles failed to clear the puck at the end of the power play, leading to Jezegou’s heroics.
Éric Faille had given the Titan the lead late in the 1st period. With both teams short one player, Faille handily redirected a Drew Paris pass upstairs to beat Holden upstairs. The Screaming replied with two quick goals in the second stanza. Nick McNeil tied the score at 14:50 before Robert Slaney gave them a short-lived lead with a power play marker at 17:10.
Taylor Lambke tied the score at 2, getting a nifty pass from Rémi Blanchard while he had slipped behind the Cape Breton defenders to beat Holden between the legs with only 28 seconds left in the period.
With the win, the Titan come back from Cape Breton with a .500 record, a good pickup considering the Eagles’ hot start to the season.
This week, Acadie-Bathurst will head on their 1st Quebec-based road trip. Wednesday, they will be in Gatineau to face the Olympiques. Friday, they will play the Montreal Junior for the first time at the Verdun Auditorium and will close out their trip with a game against the Victoriaville Tigres Saturday. The team’s next home game will be Friday October 10th as the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles will be in town.
Weekend notes: Taylor Lambke continues his strong play to start the season. He has 8 points in 7 games while Jezegou leads the team with 9 points. Jezegou and Eric Faille scored twice while Rémi Blanchard had four assists.. Rookie Stephan Fournier scored his first QMJHL goal in Friday night’s game, and a beautiful one at that. Cutting from left to right, around the defender and forcing goaltender Olivier Roy to commit, Fournier showed patience on the play that one would expect from a seasoned veteran…
