Paying the price for victory
Eagles players put body on the line in frantic final minute, defeat Drakkar in Game 3
SYDNEY — The Cape Breton Eagles have never shied away from putting the body on the line for team success.
From the time the puck dropped on the playoffs in late March to the semifinal series, the Eagles have proven time and time again that they’ll do whatever it takes to win.
On Monday night, it was no different in their 2-1 victory over the Baie-Comeau Drakkar in Game 3 of the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League semifinal series in front of a sellout crowd of 4,922 fans at Centre 200 in Sydney.
In a frantic final minute of play, with Baie-Comeau in the zone for more than a minute and the net empty, the Eagles blocked eight shots while holding the one-goal lead.
While all shot blocks were important, none were bigger than those by Eagles forward Antoine Roy. The 19-yearold blocked three shots including taking one off the face in the dying seconds of the contest.
'HE LOST A FEW TEETH'
Roy laid on the ice, tapping his hand on the ice in pain as play went on before the whistle sounded with four seconds left on the clock. Roy skated off on his own power and went directly to the Eagles dressing room – his teammates would later finish the job.
“When it was time to block shots at the end, you saw the dedication and you saw the leadership,” said Eagles head coach Louis Robitaille. “It’s just crazy just to see those guys pay the price for the team – they want team success.”
Robitaille provided an update on Roy following the game.
“He lost a few teeth, got some stitches, but he'll be OK, and he'll be there (Tuesday). That's a warrior and that's Eagles,” said Robitaille.
Cam Squires scored both goals for the Eagles, who trailed the best-of-seven series 2-1 going into Game 4 on Tuesday night in Sydney.
Jules Boilard had the lone goal for the Drakkar, who suffered its first loss of the playoffs.
Cape Breton’s Nicolas Ruccia was solid between the pipes, stopping 39 of 40 shots. Baie-Comeau’s Charles-Édward Gravel turned aside 24 of 26 shots.
After a scoreless first period, Cape Breton opened the scoring with Squires firing home his eighth goal of the playoffs from the slot, beating Gravel low on the blocker side to make the score 1-0 at 3:09 of the second period.
The Eagles added to the lead at 4:29 of the third period with Squires jamming a loose puck past Gravel to increase the lead to two.
Less than four minutes later, Boilard netted his second goal of the playoffs to cut the Eagles lead to one.
IMPORTANCE OF HOME ICE
The Drakkar had several opportunities in the final 90 seconds but were unable to get shots through and when they did, they couldn’t beat Ruccia.
Baie-Comeau outshot Cape Breton 40-26 while going 0-for-1 on the power play. The Eagles were also 0-for-1 with the man advantage.
Before the start of the playoffs, many players on the Eagles roster never had much experience winning in the postseason. Now, the team has two playoff series victories and a win in the league semifinal under its belt.
“Experience is a funny thing, it comes and goes with momentum,” said Squires. “I think that’s part of our success is just riding the wave of youth and excitement and learning as we go with the ups and the downs.”
Trailing the series heading home, Squires said each member of the team knew the importance of Game 3.
“Going through adversity at the start of the series I think was huge,” said Squires, who as of Monday night had nine goals and 19 points in 12 playoff games.
“It just made our group realize how important home ice is. They did their job and we have to come back here and do ours.”
In the other semifinal, the Drummondville Voltigeurs lead the best-of-seven series 2-0 with the Victoriaville Tigres. The series continued Tuesday with Game 3 set for 8 p.m. Atlantic time in Victoriaville, Que.
The score result from Games 4 of the Eagles and Drakkar series was not available at publication time. Visit saltwire.com/cape-breton/ for a full post-game recap. NOTES: Jude Campbell (healthy), Noah Larochelle (healthy), Etienne Desjardins (healthy) and Jakub Milota (international tournament) were not dressed for Cape Breton.; Julien Paillé (injured), Kirill Evstigneev (healthy), Jabez Seymour (healthy) and Alexis Mathieu (healthy) were out for BaieComeau.; The game was the Eagles’ third consecutive playoff sellout.