Hockey Aigles Bleus win 5-3 over the Tigers

Hockey Aigles Bleus win 5-3 over the Tigers

Moncton – Jean-François Plante scored twice and Pierre Durepos had two assists and a goal to lead Université de Moncton Aigles Bleus to a 5-3 win over Dalhousie University Tigers on Friday evening in an Atlantic University Sport men's hockey game at the J.-Louis-Lévesque Arena.

The Aigles, with only one goal in three games in 2017, were able to play better around the opposing net and took a 5-1 lead after two periods before conceding two unanswered goals in the third to the visitors. Steve Lebel (Pierre Durepos, Alex Saulnier) and Carl Marois (Marc-Anthony Therrien, Jean-Sébastien Fournier) gave the host team a 2-0 first period lead in front of over 600 spectators. Plante, twice (Alex Saulnier, Durepos) and Pierre Durepos, made it 5-1 in the second. Andrew Rieder, in the middle period and Mike Evelyn and Jackson Playfair, in the third, were able to get the puck behind goaltender Brandon Thibeau, who made 35 saves, including 21 in the third. Joe Gladnick did give up 3 goals on 10 shots before being replaced by Jacob Fancy, at the beginning of the second. He offered 2 goals on 18 shots. Moncton was 2 for 6 on the power play and Dalhousie, 2 for 4. 

''It was a funny game for us; we saw fast and up and down plays in the first and second,'' Moncton coach Serge Bourgeois said. "We scored two important power play goals. We got in trouble in the third by taking too many penalties and we lost the momentum and they took over. Our goaltender had to come up with some great saves. The penalties took us away from our play and some players did not get a chance to play often.  Against StFX, Saturday, we want to steal two standings points on the road. We had only scored once in 2017 and seeing the big guns get goals tonight was a relieve.''

Subway player of the game, defencemen Pierre Durepos, said the team needed this important victory. ''We are battling with them for last place right now and this is a huge win,'' Durepos said. ''We played well and we were passing well for two periods, but things turned around in the third because of our indiscipline and that could have played against us. We took too many penalties. We need to play 60 minutes and not just 40.''

Moncton travels to Antigonish, Saturday, for another encounter with third place St. Francis Xavier University X-Men (12-8-1=25pts). Dalhousie has the night off.