Despite a domination of 36 shots for the Patriotes – compared to only 11 for the Ravens – it was the visitors and their goalkeeper Steven Bacovsky who played spoilsport in front of the 1,080 spectators gathered at the Colisée Jean-Guy Talbot. Conor Frenette (12th) was the only scorer for the locals in a 2-1 defeat.
The Pats got off to a good start, outscoring their opponents in shots on goal and puck possession. However, it was the Ravens who scored the first goal of the game in the ninth minute of play when Alex Johnston took advantage of a turnover in the slot to beat goalkeeper Charles-Antoine Lavallée, who found himself without a stick .
Then a few moments later, the visitors doubled their lead with less than five minutes remaining in the period. A good forecheck from Reese Belton allowed Nick McCarry to get alone in front of the Trois-Rivières goalkeeper. The left winger was patient and waited for Lavallée to compromise before pushing the puck behind him. Despite a 15-4 domination in terms of shots, Trois-Rivières retreated to the locker room with a 2-0 deficit.
The same scenario repeated itself at the very start of the second period as Marc-Étienne Hubert’s men came out hungry, dominating their opponents. Mathis Cloutier thought he had reduced the gap in the first minutes of the engagement when he tried to surprise the opposing goalkeeper with a spinner, starting from behind the net. Alert, Bacovsky returned in time to block the puck on the goal line.
Later in the period, the Patriotes had some bad luck as two pucks ended up on the horizontal bar.
With a little less than nine minutes remaining in the third period, the Patriotes finally managed to break through the Bacovsky wall on the 31st shot directed towards him, courtesy of Conor Frenette. Entering the zone, Félix Lafrance made a superb feint in front of the Ravens defender before handing the disc to his captain. The latter scored with a good shot from the glove side.
The Patriots buzzed repeatedly at the end of the third to try to tie the game, but to no avail. The hero of the match, Bacovsky, will have given nothing else to the Trois-Rivières.
This was the Patriotes’ last local game before the holiday break. Marc-Étienne Hubert’s men will try to recover on Friday when they will be at the Campus Ice Center to face the Ontario Tech University Ridgebacks, during a rare morning match which will begin at around 11 a.m. (JC / Source Néo UQTR – Étienne Dubois)
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