BAIE-COMEAU | The Baie-Comeau Drakkar lost their first set 2-1 to the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada on Friday night.
The members of the Côte-Nord crew met a very well-trained goalkeeper in the opening duel of this doubles program, who allowed his team to be saved with this win in extremis.
Bombarded with 25 pucks in the third period alone, Charles-Edward Gravel didn’t want to know anything and stood there like a wall to complete his brilliant evening of work with a total of 42 saves.
At 1-1 after 40 minutes, the visitors capitalized on a power play to score the decisive goal, Justin Carbonneau’s 11th minute of the third period.
Left completely alone in front of goalkeeper Olivier Ciarlo, number 11 had time to throw and execute his own return to hit the target.
“It was a bad reading of the game of the five players on the ice,” summed up pilot Jean-François Grégoire dryly after the game.
Slow start
After a slow start, the Drakkar regained their composure with 39 shots in the last 40 minutes of the game.
“It’s harder to concentrate after returning from a trip. The players were more focused after the premiere. They were in the game until the end, but their goalkeeper made the big saves,” admitted the head coach.
The winners (15 shots against 4) quickly set the tone for the game and without Olivier Ciarlo’s saves the score would have been much higher than 1-0. Jonathan Fauchon put his power play ahead.
The pugnacious Charles-Thomas Larochelle livened up the debate in the second period, leveling the game with the only goal scored against the undisputed star of the game.
It was a second loss in less than 48 hours for the Drakkar, who will try to recover during the second meeting between the two teams this afternoon.