There were no shortage of opportunities for the UPEI Panthers in their 4-2 loss Friday night to the Moncton Blue Eagles.
The Panthers outshot the Blue Eagles 36-28 in the Atlantic University Sport men hockey contest at a packed MacLauchlan Arena, but they couldn’t find the net enough to end the first half of the season with a win.
The win slid the Blue Eagles (10-4-0) up into third place before the Christmas break, while the Panthers sit at 8-6-0.
UPEI head coach Forbes MacPherson said the Blue Eagles came into the game on a mission for payback after the Panthers’ comeback win last week in Moncton.”
“You could tell right from the drop of the puck tonight that they were ready to go and they were focused on leaving this rink with two points,” said MacPherson. “And to their credit, they did a great job.”
The Panthers’ Matt Carter said his team spent much of the game trying to catch the Blue Eagles.
“We didn’t come out the way we wanted to, they took advantage of their bounces and we didn’t respond with our bounces,” he said. “The games like this show that we’re there, we just have to take it one step higher.”
Moncton captain Dean Ouellet opened the scoring with a power-play goal at 8:38.
Carter managed to tie it up before the end of the period, executing a one-timer past Moncton goalie Pierre-Alexandre Marion off a pass from Devin Praught at 14:34.
Moncton got the lead back quick in the second period when Remi Blanchard took the puck from within the Blue Eagles’ territory and raced towards the Panthers net to score at 5:14.
The score was tipped even more in Moncton’s favour at 14:59, when a rouge shot from Kevin Charland hit Pier-Alexandre Pouli’s stick, bounced off the ice and snuck past UPEI goalie Mavric Parks.
Panther forward Travis McIsaac later found the net at 9:20 in the third, but it wasn’t enough for a UPEI comeback, as Moncton’s Eric Faille sealed the game for the Blue Eagles with an empty-netter in the final 10 seconds.
Marion stopped 36 shots, while Parks stopped 24.
The Panthers will return to regular-season action on Friday, Jan. 6, when they host the Saint Mary’s Huskies.
“We’ll see how we react, we have a month off here to kind of regroup, gauge where we are and where our team is,” said MacPherson.
Carter added that will mean lots of work and determination for the Panthers over the next month.
“It’s going to take a lot of commitment from guys individually, just hitting the gym and staying on top of their bodies and being able to come back in the second half and light it up.”
