ST. PAUL - The St. Paul Jr. B Canadiens are leading the second series of the NEAJBHL playoffs 2-0 following two big wins against the Wainwright Bisons over the weekend.
“I'm pleased with out effort throughout the first two games,” said head coach Shawn Germain. “Obviously, you never want to blow a three-goal lead as we did in the first game, but I was proud of the way we battled back and found a way to win that game.”
The Canadiens travelled to Wainwright for the first game of the series on Friday night. Wainwright is the league’s defending champion, having won the league championship for the past four seasons.
Lane Wycotte, Brody Green and Janson Pashniak opened up the scoring on Friday night, giving the St. Paul team an early 3-0 lead. A Wainwright Bisons goal late in the first was the first of four unanswered goals that would come from the home team.
Wainwright scored once in the second period, then two more times in the third, taking the lead 4-3. But, a goal from Kurtis Labant, followed by a goal from Darwin Morin just a couple minutes later shifted the momentum back to the Canadiens.
The win was sealed with an empty net goal from Captain Brayden Goulet, making for a final score of 6-4 for St. Paul. Goalie Bradley Mistol was in net for the Canadiens Friday night, saving 28 or 32 shots.
Heading into Sunday night’s game at the Clancy Richard Arena, the Canadiens knew they had to keeping working hard.
“I thought Sunday may have been our most complete game of the season, so we want to continue to build on that. We know that this series is far from over,” said Germain.
The night saw Mistol in net for the shut out win. Mistol stopped all 34 shots taken on him.
“Obviously, he was tremendous, but I thought our defence corps as a whole played great and our overall commitment to defence from our entire club was quite detailed and willing to do what was necessary to get the win,” said Germain.
Wycotte opened the scoring for the Canadiens in the first period, followed by a goal from Labant.
In the second, Wycotte grabbed his second goal of the night, while Pashniak also netted on.
Heading into the third period 4-0, the Canadiens continued to battle, with Morin scoring the last goal of the night with 10 minutes left in the game.
The Canadiens will now head back to Wainwright for game three of the series on Wednesday night.
“Wainwright is a great time and we expect a very hungry opponent on Wednesday night,” said Germain.
The series will return to St. Paul for a March 6 game. The puck drops at 8 p.m. at the Clancy Richard Arena.
