6 oct. 2016 – Times & Transcript Aigles Bleus lose season opener to UPEI Panthers TIMES & TRANSCRIPT

The Université de put up a good fight, but came out on the wrong end of their Atlantic University Sport men’s hockey conference season opener last night.

The Aigles Bleus fell behind early and saw their comeback come up short in a 7- 5 loss to the visiting University of Panthers at the J.-Louis-

Lévesque Arena.

Moncton trailed 6-3 early in the third period, before scoring a pair of goals to cut the deficit to one.

The Aigles Bleus had their scoring chances on a late power play, but Panthers goaltender Matt Mahalak made the key saves to preserve his team’s lead. An empty-netter by Beau McCue with one second remaining sealed the victory.

Cody Payne tallied two goals and an assist and McCue scored twice for UPEI. Marcus Power and former Moncton Wildcat J.C. Campagna each added a goal and an assist, Sam Aulie also found the back of the net and Brent Andrews chipped in with two assists for the winners.

Moncton’s top line of twins Alex and Allain Saulnier and Jean-François Plante combined for 13 points. Alex Saulnier and Plante each recorded two goals and two assists and Allain Saulnier contributed five assists.

Victor Beaulac had a goal and an assist in the loss. Mahalak stopped 33 shots for the Panthers. Brandon Thibeau made 27 saves for the Aigles Bleus.

“We had the effort, we just made a few errors at the beginning. We are going to learn from that,”said Alex Saulnier.

“With five goals, we should have won the game. Errors did not help. We began the game behind in the scoring, the same as in the pre-season. It would be fun to score the first goal. It is good that we were able to come back in the game.”

A short-handed goal by Aulie at 3:31 of the third period pushed UPEI’s lead to 6- 3. But just 13 seconds later, Alex Saulnier connected on a power play goal and then Beaulac struck at 5:47 to bring Moncton within one.

However, the Aigles Bleus could not get the equalizer past Mahalak.

The Panthers scored twice in the first 7:20 of the game and were up 3-1 after the opening 20 minutes.

They led 5-3 after two periods.

“The effort was present, we just gave up the puck three times in the first and they scored three times. There are no excuses, I am proud of the way the team played this evening,” said Aigles Bleus head coach Serge Bourgeois.

“We need to make adjustments in the offensive zone with our new system. We tended to go back to our old system tonight. All trios need to contribute offensively and all missed chances. We were not playing our style of hockey at the beginning and after we calmed things, we got on track. We had a number of scoring chances on the power play, but we missed.”

The Aigles Bleus visit the University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds tomorrow in

Fredericton.

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Alex Saulnier of the Université de Moncton Aigles Bleus, left, scores a goal as Craig MacLauchlan of the University of Prince Edward Island Panthers looks on during AUS men’s hockey play at the J.-Louis-Lévesque Arena on Wednesday.

PHOTO: NOrmaNd a. Léger