Game 3 goes to the visitors
Second period costly as Screaming Eagles doubled 6-3 by Volts
A second-period letdown cost the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles as the Drummondville Voltigeurs skated to a 6-3 win in Game 3 of their Quebec Major Junior Hockey League playoff series Monday at Centre 200.
The Screaming Eagles held a 2-1 lead early in the middle stanza after Shaun Miller scored his second of the post-season in the slot. But the Voltigeurs would reply with four unanswered tallies in the frame, as penalty trouble hurt the hosts.
“I think we just made a couple of mistakes that cost us some goals,” said Miller, an 18-yearold winger from Windsor, N.S. “There’s nothing we can do about it now. In the playoffs, you don’t have time to dwell on the loss. You just have to reset and look forward to the next game.”
Nicolas Beaudin, Cédric Desruisseaux on the power play, Joe Veleno — just as an Eagles penalty expired — and Connor Bramwell with a bullet from the slot broke the game open for the Voltigeurs, who took a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven opening round series in front of 2,709 fans.
“The second period was the turning point, no doubt,” said Screaming Eagles head coach and general manager MarcAndré Dumont. “We completely stopped doing the details we’re supposed to be doing and that we’ve been doing for a long time. It’s probably the worst period I’ve seen us play in 2018.”
Nicolas Guay on the power play in the first and Pavel Koltygin in the third bookended the Drummondville attack. Yvan Mongo picked up three assists, while Black Rock’s Jarrett Baker finished the game with an assist on the blue-line.
The Voltigeurs finished 2-for-7 with the man advantage.
“I liked the way we moved the puck tonight,” said Drummondville
head coach Dominique Ducharme. “I thought we had a good mindset on the power play. We won a few battles to keep the puck inside or to give ourselves second chances.”
Screaming Eagles defenceman Adam McCormick opened the scoring, launching a shot through a crowd on the power play. Jordan Ty Fournier found the back of the net late in the
third, but it was as close as Cape Breton would get to catching the visitors.
Olivier Rodrigue turned aside 21 shots to pick up his second win of the series. Screaming
Eagles starter
Kevin Mandolese stopped
24 of 29 shots over two periods of work and shouldered the loss. He was replaced by Kyle Jessiman for the third, who stopped four of five shots in relief.
Dumont said he’ll announce his starter at game time on Wednesday, and that Mandolese wasn’t at fault for Monday’s loss. He added that it was important to give Jessiman some minutes after coming off a lower body injury at the end of the regular season.
Game 4 of the series goes Wednesday at Centre 200, a 7 p.m. start.