By THE DAILY PRESS
Felix Boutin ended the Abitibi Eskimos' pre-season schedule last night with an exclamation mark.
Boutin was the only goal scorer in a shootout against the Temiscaming Royals, handing the Eskis a 5-4 victory in Iroquois Falls.
The victory also kept Abitbi's undefeated exhibition record (2-0-1) intact heading into regular-season action next week.
Despite the victory, the Eskis had a rough go of it last night, especially in the opening period, head coach Paul Gagne said.
"We stunk the place up. We just didn't play well at all," said Gagne, adding his players weren't on the same page.
"To give credit to Temiscaming, they came out flying. It was unbelievable compared to last Friday."
As bad as they started the game -- with a number of penalties in the first period -- the score was 2-2 heading into the third.
Matt St. Jacques and Michael Robert scored for Abitibi in that period to send the game into overtime.
Boutin was the sixth shooter in the penalty shots. He faked a shot and got the Royals' goalie to make a move before wiring it through a seam and into the net.
"It wasn't a great game. It really wasn't, but we finished strong. That's positive," Gagne said.
"Now they know what it takes to make it and what we need to do here. We can't just dwell on what we did last year and how many players we have back. I think they're going to realize we have to work for it."
The NOJHL regular season begins on Sept. 9 for the Eskis. They will travel to Sudbury to battle the Junior Wolves.
Information from: http://www.eskis.com/
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment