Strong defensive play at both ends of the ice plus a twenty save shutout performance by Tristan Gray enabled the Tigers to hustle their way to a 6-0 home win over the Blizzard Tuesday night.
After a scoreless first period, the Tigers broke through on a goal by Drew Toner, his first of two in the game. Helping out on the effort was Maxime Charest and Charles-William Gagné. The Tigers’ lead was doubled three minutes later when Dawson Stairs, in Edmundston’s zone, eluded the Blizzard’s defenders, moved into the slot and set up Jared Janke for a tap-in goal. About four minutes after that, on the penalty kill, Francis Thibeault intercepted a pass in his own end and, seeing some skating room, proceeded to carry the puck into the Blizzard’s zone. He worked his way to the top of the slot and then fired a blistering wristshot past Francis Asselin’s blocker to give the Tigers a three goal lead.
In the third, Campbellton continued with their scoring ways starting with Janke being rewarded for his persistence with his second goal of the game. After receiving a pass from Stairs, the puck slipped ahead of him and towards a Blizzard defender inside the Edmundston zone. Hustling in, Janke tapped the puck towards the net, catching Asselin off guard and going in the wrong direction. Much to the delight of the many home team fans, the puck slid untouched into the corner of the net, putting the Tigers in a much more comfortable position against the talented Blizzard squad. Campbellton added a couple of late-game goals with first coming on the powerplay. A nifty tic-tac-toe passing play between Gagné, Charest and Toner resulted in a short tap-in marker for Toner. Shortly after that, a shot by Logan Kelly-Murphy resulted in a rebound that Toner slapped back off the goalie`s pads. This second rebound was then tapped into the net by Gagné to round off the scoring.
The Tigers will head back to Edmundston on Thursday for game four of the series and then will host the Blizzard on Saturday night at the Memorial Civic Center. Fans are asked to wear yellow and/or black and be prepared to make lots of noise.