Titan snap losing skid with win over Wildcats
BATHURST, N.B. – The Acadie-Bathurst Titan are back in the win column after declawing the Moncton Wildcats at home in the first of a pair of Hockey Weekend games. The Titan won 5-3 over the visiting Wildcats at the K.C. Irving Regional Centre.
“It was a good game for us. We battled a lot of adversity throughout the game with, you know, with penalties and us not being able to score at specific times,” said Titan Head Coach Jason Clarke. “So, it was good to see the guys keep the positive energy on the bench and not be negative about anything that was going on and just kind of continue to press forward. I think our attitude and our positive attitude tonight’s the one that got us through.”
The Titan kicked-off the game with a bang, scoring the opening goal 6:42 into the first 20 minutes to pull in front of their provincial rivals 1-0. Jacob Melanson scored on the powerplay, with assists from Bennett MacArthur and Zach Biggar to take the lead. Moncton responded with a pair of powerplay goals from Vincent Labelle and Yoan Loshing with four minutes left in the period to bounce back and grab a 2-1 edge over the home team.
Thomas Belgarde tied things up for the Titan nearing the midway mark of the second period, thanks to assists from Marc-Andre Gaudet and Miguel Tourigny to make the score 2-2. At the 12:12 mark Riley Kidney fed the puck to MacArthur, who scored the Titan’s third goal of night to take back the lead over Moncton. Acadie-Bathurst kept the lead until the 13:37 mark in the final frame, when Brooklyn Kalmikov sniped the puck past Chad Arsenault to tie the game 3-3.
Within three minutes of the goal, Joseph Henneberry scored the home teams game winner of the night at 16:26 to retake the lead, which was followed by Felix Lafrance’s short-handed empty net goal to beat Moncton 5-2. MacArthur and Melanson earned first and second star respectively, while Wildcats goaltender Vincent Filion was the third star of the game. Acadie-Bathurst scored on one of their three powerplay chances and Moncton scored was 2-for-4 on the man advantage.
The Titan will host the Charlottetown Islanders tomorrow at 4 p.m.
Three Stars:
- Bennett MacArthur (1 goal, 1 assist)
- Jacob Melanson (1 goal)
- Vincent Filion (37 saves)
