Antoine Fontaine and Tristan St-Gelais each had a goal and an assist and Louca Connolly stopped 34/35 as the Truro Bearcats got their first win at the Centennial Cup with a 2-1 victory over the QJHL champion, College Francais de Longueuil.
The Bearcat only needed the first period to get the goals they needed to win. Tristan St-Gelais opened the scoring 3:10 in, taking an excellent cross ice pass from Fontaine and firing it off the back crossbar from the left side. Jayden Connors had the second assist on the opening goal. After going 0/6 on the Powerplay in the opening game against Greater Sudbury, the Bearcats finally converted on the man advantage at the 7:07 mark when Antoine Fontaine finished off a broken play in the slot as a shot from Jake Todd pinballed to Fontaine who fired a shot short side past CJHL Goaltender of the Year Nominee, Mathis Lacroix-Goulet to make it 2-0 Truro. Todd and St-Gelais had the assists.
The teams locked it down in the second with Longueuil pressing to get on the board. Just over halfway through the middle frame, Longueuil captain Gabriel L’Etoile made a great read in the defensive zone shorthanded, able to force a Bearcat turnover before streaking down the ice and beating Connolly five hole to bring the game within one.
Cue, Louca Connolly. The Bearcat netminder stopped everything the rest of the way, including 14 in the final period as Truro locked it down in their own end to preserve the victory.
Truro captain, Liam Welsh was out of the lineup due to injury and playoff leading scorer, Callum Aucoin left this game midway through. Their statuses remain unknown.
The Bearcats will be back in action tomorrow at 7:30pm as they take on the OJHL champion, Toronto Patriots who are currently 2-0 so far and have outscored their opponents 15-5.