B-L-T Line Shines Cats Beat Huskies
Lalonde, Barbashev and Tkachev Shine Wildcats Drop Huskies
Wildcats captain Chris Lalonde had one of the most unforgettable weeks of his young hockey career this week capped off with a three goal third period on Friday night as the Moncton Wildcats defeated the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies 6-4 at the Moncton Coliseum.
Lalonde began the week helping his Wildcats defeat Charlottetown on Sunday afternoon 5-3, then Monday he joined the Adrondiack Flames of the AHL for a try out before heading back for Moncton to dazzle the crowd with the hat-trick this evening.
The Huskies got on the score board first Ryan Penny scored on a wrap around shot that fooled Cats goalie Alex Dubeau at 4:45 then minutes later Antione Waked gave the Huskies a 2-0 lead at 7:54.
Lalonde was not the only Wildcat to return from a major training camp this week as the Moncton faithful warmly greeted Vladimir Tkachev back to the fold after having a super NHL training camp with the Edmonton Oilers.
Tkachev wasted little time making his return felt.
After Will Smith scored his fourth of the year from Garret Johnston and Will Bower at 16:00 to cut the Huskie lead to one goal; Tkachev scored his first of what Moncton fans hope is many goals when Ivan Barbashev slid a pass to a falling Tkachev who buried it behind Alexandre Belanger to even it a 2 heading into period 2.
After a scoreless second period the Capatin Chris got the Wildcats power play rolling at 6:46 pouncing on a Tkachev pass for his fourth of the season at 6:46 of the third.
The Huskies retaliated with two quick goals at Francis Perron at 7:12 and Ryan Penny with his second and 7th of the season 8:12 to give the Huskies a 4-3 lead.
Then the BLT line went to work as Ivan Barbashev tied the contest at 12:20 to make it 4-4 then after Jeremie Auger received a 5 minute major for hit from behind on Garrett Johnston, Lalonde notched the game winner at 14:06 and completed the hat trick at 19:20 into an empty net as the Cats improve to 5-2 on the year.
The BLT line notched ten scoring points between them Barbachev 3 points, Lalonde 3 points and Tkachev 4 points and deservingly so the entire line was named the three stars 3rd star Barbashev, 2nd star Tkachev and Lalonde was rewarded for his heroics tonight with the first star honors.
Alex Dubeau stopped 18 of the 22 shots he faced as he picked up another huge win for the Cats while Alexandre Belanger fresh of a 5-0 shut out last night in Halifax stopped 26 of 31 he faced in the loss for the Huskies.
The Wildcats will face the Val-d’Or on Saturday for a 7:00 game. The Foreurs continue to struggle out of the gate losing 3-1 in Charlottetown on Friday night and now have a record of 2-6.
Catch the action at the rink or listen to CITA-FM 105.1 for all the action with Roger whiote beginning with the pre-game show at 6:45.
