After enjoying a successful road trip the previous weekend, the Tigers returned to the friendly confines of the Memorial Civic Center for a pair of home games. On Friday the opposition was the Summerside Western Capitals who in a recent poll, was named as the #4 Jr. A team in all of Canada. Although the Tigers battled hard, pressured the Caps and outshot Summerside, the Tigers could not find a way to get the puck past Dominik Tmej in the Caps’ and suffered a 4-0 loss. Marc-Antoine Berube-Jalbert took the loss in the Tigers’ net, his first since joining the team.
On Saturday night versus Grand Falls the Tigers fared better but it took extra time and significant contributions from the game’s first star, Kyle Petten to pocket the two points. Although the Rapids presently sit at the bottom of the North Division they still hope to earn a spot in the playoffs and thus play a very determined style of offensive game. They jumped out to an early lead on a shot from the point that was deflected past Tiger goalie, Tristan Gray by Christian Snyder. Grand Falls got to enjoy the lead for less than a minute thanks to the great eye-hand coordination of Mitch Britton. The play started deep in Campbellton’s zone when Hunter Martin fired a pass ahead to Antoine Gauthier at center ice. Gauthier sped into the Rapids’ zone and wristed a misdirected shot which bounced off the boards and back over the net. While the puck was still in mid-air, Britton batted it over the surprised goalie’s glove and into the net. The Tigers then got into penalty trouble in the last few minutes of the period and with only fifteen seconds left in the frame, Grand Falls made them pay for it by retaking the lead on a goal by Jean-Simon Belanger. About half way through the second period, Jordan Spadafore doubled the Rapids’ lead with another power play goal. However, the Tigers had a quick response which got their fans back into the game. After Brendan Bornstein made a nice play to keep the puck in the offensive zone, Pierre-Luc Lurette move the puck into Joel Walker. From the top of the face-off circle, Walker turned and fired a backhander which found its way past the screened goalie and into the net. The equalizer came late in the third off the stick of the game’s first star, Kyle Petten. After Pascal Valcourt won the face-off in the offensive zone, the puck ended up behind the Rapids’ net where Coleton Perry nabbed it, circled out front and tried to get the puck on net. The shot was cleared into the corner where Petten pounced on it, wheeled untouched back to the front of the net and fired a shot under the goalie’s arm into the net. Before the end of regulation play, the Tigers had a number of chances to score but Nolan Boyd, the game’s second star, made some tremendous saves to force overtime. In the extra time, Perry drew a penalty when he broke in alone and beat the goalie but not the post. Shortly after, with the man advantage, Jared Janke set up Petten alone on the right side from where he rifled a shot into the net to win it for the Tigers. Valcourt was named third game star and Gray, with twenty-eight saves, picked up the win.
The Tigers are now seven points ahead of Edmundston in the battle for second place in the North. Campbellton has eleven regular season games remaining while the Blizzard have an even dozen.