Overtime heroics
Mitchell Balmas’ penalty shot goal in overtime leads Screaming Eagles past Océanic
Mitchell Balmas was the hometown hero for the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles against the Rimouski Océanic on Thursday night.
The Sydney native was taken down on a breakaway in overtime by Rimouski’s Anthony Gagnon and awarded a penalty shot in front of 2,342 fans at Centre 200 in Sydney. The 20-year-old would make no mistake, notching his seventh goal of the season, giving the Screaming Eagles the 4-3 win.
Cape Breton opened the scoring in the game with Wilson Forest netting his first goal of the season from the slot, beating former Océanic teammate Colten Ellis at 14:20 of the opening period.
The Océanic would tie the contest just over five minutes into the middle stanza with 20-year-old Olivier Garneau firing home a Charle-Edouard D’Astous cross-ice pass for his eighth of the season.
The final frame began with a fight nine seconds in. Screaming Eagles captain Declan Smith dropped the mitts with overager Jimmy Huntington,
with Smith getting the takedown.
Minutes later, Rimouski took its first lead of the game with Anthony Gagnon’s shot
trickling through Cape Breton netminder Kevin Mandolese. The Screaming Eagles would answer 58 seconds later with Mathias Laferrière’s shot from
the top of the right circle, fooling Ellis on the blocker side, making the score 2-2.
The contest remained tied with less than five minutes to play in regulation, and emotions continued to ride high with Cape Breton’s Kyle Havlena and Rimouski’s Parker Bowman dropping the gloves, both trying to spark their respective teams.
Rimouski regained the lead with 2:10 to play in the third period with Garneau finding the twine on the power play with Antoine Crête-Belzile in the penalty box for holding. Cape Breton wouldn’t go away, with Gabriel Proulx tipping Leon Gawanke’s point shot past Ellis with 10.6 to play in regulation time, sending the contest to overtime, and leading to Balmas’ heroics.
Mandolese made 19 saves in the win. Ellis stopped 23 of 26 shots for the Océanic.
Cape Breton outshot Rimouski 26-22, while going 0-for-3 on the power play. The Océanic were 1-for-2 with the man-advantage.
The Screaming Eagles will return to action on Saturday when they travel to Saint John, N.B., to play the Sea Dogs. Game time is 7 p.m. at Harbour Station.