Blainville-Boisbriand opens President Cup final winning first game at home

QUEBEC CITY, P.Q. — With only two days of rest compared to eight for the Acadie-Bathurst, the Blainville-Boisbriand came out strong scoring first two goals in the game in less than four minutes in the opening period leading them to 4-1 wins against the Acadie-Bathurst in game one of the QMJHL President Cup final.

Coming off of grueling semifinal series against Charlottetown Islanders, Blainville-Boisbriand took the Acadie-Bathurst territory by storm scoring first two goals on seven shots inside first 3:03 in first period.

Putting lots of pressure in offensive zone, Armada centr Alex Barre-Boulet took first shot on Titans goaltenders Evan Fitzpatrick. Making first save on Tampa Bay free agent signee, Fitzpatrick couldn’t do anything as Charles-Antoine Giguere took lose puck beating Acadie-Bathurst goalie 1:14 into initial period.

Armada came back couple minutes later with their second goal in the game. In almost identical play, the shot from Aleksi Antalainen from the blue line has been saves by Titans netminder but Luke Henman took the rebound roofing the puck on backhand shot 4:17 into first period.

Beneficiary of eighth days off after defeating Victoriaville Tigres in the other semifinal series, Acadie-Bathurst thought they had scored their first goal as Ethan Crossman pushed the push behind Emile Samson with 3:32 remaining to play, but the goal was waved-off due to goalie interference.

Titans got several good scoring opportunities as Samuel L’Italien, Mitchel Balmas, Ethan Crossman, Antoine Morand and German Robtsov all get great opportunities but each times Armada netminder Samson closed the door.

Blainville-Boisbriand dominated 14-9 in shots on goal in first period.

Acadie-Bathurst played much better in second period getting scoring chances as they put more traffic in front of Armada netminder but each times Samson shut the door on Titans players. Liam Murphy got visitor best scoring chance during penalty to Arnada right winger Drake Batherson as Titans left winger shot from the slot been saved by the Levis, Quebec native.

Already getting great scoring opportunity in first period, German Robtsov saw Samson made glove saved against Russian center.

Armada right winger Drake Batherson got excellent chance of adding to his team lead as he went on breakaway with 20.1 seconds remaining in middle frame but Fitzpatrick made right pad save to prevent Blainville-Boisbriand to add a third goal to their lead.

Blainville-Boisbriand adds to their lead 2:15 into the third periods as Thomas Ethier scored his sixth of the playoff. Ethier took a rebound from teammate Joel Tisdale shot. Ethier wrist shot beat Fitzpatrick top corner.

Acadie-Bathurst got on board with their first goal in the game as they tried to kill penalty to teammate Elijah Francis. On three-on-two breakaway Justin Ducharmes has been the only one been able to beat Armada netminder Samson at 6:23.

Blainville-Boisbriand answered couple seconds later on same penalty to Titans defenseman regaining their three goal leads as Alex Barre-Boulet scored his 12th of the playoff at 7:37 of the third periods.

Titans goaltender has been victim of four goals on 35 shots, his opponent Emile Samson allowed only one goal facing 30 shots. For Samson it was his 29th consecutive victories, he was at only one win of the record held by Cedric Desjardins with 30th in playoff.

Game two of QMJHL President Cup final will be on Saturday in Blainville-Boisbriand.

Contact the author at: serge.poulin@prohockeynews.com