Cardiac Cats come back for victory
Jonas Taibel scored twice and Thomas Auger scored the lone goal in the shootout as the Wildcats came from behind the defeat the Drummondville Voltigeurs, 6-5 in a shootout, Saturday at Avenir Centre. Brooklyn Kalmikov and Maxim Barbashev each had a goal and an assist while Charles Antoine Pilote also scored. Vincent Labelle contributed two assists.
Drummondville opened the scoring more than four minutes into the first period.
Kalmikov countered less than a minute later, taking a Labelle feed at the bottom of the right circle, cutting across the crease and sweeping the puck inside the right post.
The Voltigeurs regained the lead only 25 seconds after that.
Barbashev made it a 2-2 game a short time later, finishing off a give-and-go with Taibel with a hard, low snap shot inside the left circle.
The visitors scored on the power play before the halfway mark in the period and led 3-2 after twenty minutes. They scored two more goals in the second.
Taibel’s first goal of the night kicked off the comeback nine minutes into the third. Barbashev carried the puck on the left wing and sent a pass across the ice to Taibel who snapped a one-timer past Voltigeurs goalie Riley Mercer and inside the left post to make it 5-3.
Still down by two, Moncton pulled goaltender Jonathan Lemieux with just over two minutes to play. Pilote made it a one-goal game with 1:17 left, firing a shot from the left circle that deflected off a Drummondville defender and in. Taibel evened the score with 42.9 seconds to go, gathering a loose puck in the slot and ripping a wrist shot through Mercer’s legs.
Auger was the first shooter in the penalty shot contest and scored the only goal for either team on a deke and shot through Mercer’s legs again. Jonathan Lemieux earned the win in goal with 35 saves and three more in the shootout.
