MONCTON — Kevin Charland snapped a 4-4 tie seven minutes into the third period and Moncton sealed the win with an empty net goal in the final seconds as the Blue Eagles edged the UPEI Panthers 6-4 in Atlantic University Sport men’s hockey action Wednesday night.
The loss snapped the Panthers’ six-game winning streak and vaulted Moncton (17-8-1) into third place with 35 points, one ahead of UPEI (17-9-0).
Charland scored the game-winner at 7:01 of the third period as Moncton won the regular season series 3-1 over UPEI.
The loss was a major setback in the Panthers’ hopes to finish among the top two in the standings and earn an opening round bye in playoffs.
The Panthers have two games left in the regular season.
They are home Friday night against conference leaders UNB Varsity Reds and finish up Saturday afternoon in Summerside against St. Thomas Tommies.
Saturday’s game starts at 2 p.m. and is part of Scotiabank Hockey Day in Canada on P.E.I.
Dissecting the game video on the bus ride home, Panthers’ head coach Forbes MacPherson said the team was flat all night.
“We put together 60 minutes of hockey that we haven’t been playing lately,” he said.
While the game had the Panthers tying the game several times, MacPherson said there appeared to be no time when they were in control.
“Even when we tied it up we weren’t really playing well,” he said. “At no point were we dominating. We just managed to score some quick goals.”
Moncton’s leading scorer, Francois Rochon, found the net at 5:07 of the first period to open the scoring, but Panthers forward Matt Brenton answered back with an unassisted effort at 9:43 while UPEI was two men short.
But the tie didn’t last long as Moncton’s Simon Lacroix scored in the dying seconds of the power play to give the Blue Eagles a 2-1 lead at 10:13.
In the second period, UPEI defenceman Reggie Traccitto scored during a two-on-one rush to tie it up at 2:04, but Moncton’s Eric Faille scored shorthanded at 5:28 to get the lead back in the see-saw battle.
Guillaume Parenteau also found the net on a power play at 11:59 to give Moncton a 4-2 lead after two periods.
Defenceman Matt Boyle narrowed the gap for the Panthers early in the third period, finding the net from the blue-line at 1:34.
Matt Carter pulled the Panthers into a 4-4 tie at 6:32.
Charland scored the game winner 29 seconds later and Marc-Andre Cote sealed the game for Moncton with the empty-netter at 19:20.
Carter said the loss was a tough one to swallow.
“The way we played wasn’t great,” he said. “It looked like we had beaten ourselves out there.”
UPEI netminder Mavric Parks made 32 save while Moncton’s P-A Marion made 30.
In other games Wednesday night, it was: UNB 5 St. Thomas 0; St. F.X. 2 Dalhousie 1.
