2022 President Cup Final | Game 2 Recap
Xavier Bourgault’s game-winner at the 2:50 mark of overtime capped a thrilling see-saw battle in Charlottetown on Sunday as the Shawinigan Cataractes defeated the Charlottetown Islanders 4-3 to take a 2-0 lead in the President Cup Final series.
Bourgault slid through the slot to convert on a Mavrik Bourque centering pass for his 10th goal of the playoffs. Bourque had already scored two goals of his own in regulation to complete a three-point night, while Pierrick Dubé was the other Shawinigan marksman.
Lukas Cormier, with a pair of goals, and Dawson Stairs provided the offense for the Islanders, who outshot the Cataractes 38-22 in the loss. Xavier Simoneau chipped in with a pair of assists in his first game of the series.
Despite a 16-5 shots advantage for the Islanders, it was the Cataractes that took a 1-0 lead into the dressing room after the first period. After Martin Has kept the play alive at the offensive blueline on the powerplay, Bourgault eventually fed a cross-ice pass to Bourque, who walked in and fired a wrister past Islanders goalie Francesco Lapenna at the 5:49 mark.
The Islanders would again lead by a wide margin in the shot department, 12-6, in the middle frame and this time, would be rewarded for their efforts. After Simoneau fired a shot wide, the puck caromed out in front to a pinching Cormier who made no mistake burying a slapper past Cataractes’ netminder Charles-Antoine Lavallée at 9:53. Cormier would double down just under two minutes later, taking a feed from Simoneau at the point and blasting it past Lavallée for his sixth of the postseason and the first Islanders lead of the Final, a 2-1 advantage they would take to the room after 40 minutes.
The Cataractes would tie things up at the 10:13 mark of the third period when Maximilien Ledoux sped down the wing before dishing off a perfect no-look pass to Bourque who fired home his seventh of the playoffs.
The final period of regulation would go on to feature numerous late heroics. Stairs’ tip-in of a Noah Laaouan point shot, his second of the postseason, would give the Isles a 3-2 cushion at 18:43. The Cataractes would respond in dramatic fashion while both on the powerplay and with Lavallée pulled for an extra attacker. Dubé’s one-timer bomb, his 10th playoff tally, would elude Lapenna with a mere six seconds remaining in regulation.
All of this would set the stage for Bourgault’s game-winner in extra time.
Shots on goal in the third period were even at nine each, while the Cataractes held a 2-1 shots edge in the abbreviated overtime. In nets, Lavallée ended the night with a 35-save performance while Lapenna stopped 18 shots.
The scene now shifts to Shawinigan where the Cataractes will be looking to put a stranglehold on the championship series in Game 3, scheduled for Wednesday at 7pm ET/8pm AT. All games are viewable on CHL TV.
_
