The Rimouski Océanic let slip a two-goal lead with less than five minutes left in the third period to lose 4-3 in a shootout this Saturday against the Wildcats in Moncton.
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The Oceanic failed to score on a 1:43 double power play in the middle of the third. It revived the Wildcats who went two unanswered goals, the last of which with 11.6 seconds left. Defender Charles-Antoine Pilote scored both goals to tie the game at 3-3 and force overtime. In overtime, Jacob Mathieu hit the post for the Océanic. Thomas Auger and Brooklyn Kalmikov beat Gabriel Robert in a shootout while Jonathan Lemieux blocked Frédéric Brunet and Luka Verreault.
“We played a very good game with several excellent scoring chances. We outshot 20-5 in the second period, but made a few coverage errors late in the third. The absence of our offensive engine (Xavier Cormier) hurt us at the end of the game,” analyzed Océanic head coach Serge Beausoleil.
The Oceanic took the lead
The Océanic started the game slowly, but got back on their feet after managing to overcome two shorthanded games without the Wildcats really threatening Gabriel Robert’s cage. Xavier Cormier (14th) opened the scoring by redirecting a wrist throw from the blue line of Frédéric Brunet. Mathis Gautier is also an accomplice of the Océanic’s 100th goal this season. The locals tied the game with 24 seconds to go in the first on a ball from Yoan Loshing (9th) from the face-off circle.
The Océanic doubles its lead
The goal awarded in the last minute of the first period did not affect the morale of the Océanic who started the second in lion. Cormier (15th) gave the visitors the lead with a backhand shot by turning in the top of the net which beat 20-year-old veteran goaltender Jonathan Lemieux, who was playing his first game in a Wildcats uniform. Alexandre Lefebvre served a perfect pass to Cormier on this sequence initiated by William Dumoulin. Moncton native Simon Maltais doubled the Océanic lead with a wrist shot from the blue line that seemed to have eyes.
In short
The Océanic was without forwards Ludovic Soucy, Cam Thomson, Alex Drover and Julien Béland, all on the COVID-19 protocol. The Océanic recalled forward Noah Matuluh from Midget AAA. Rimouski visits the Seadogs Sunday afternoon in Saint John.