The Edmundston Blizzard took a 3-0 lead in the Metalfab MHL Cup Final with a 7-2 win over the Pictou County Weeks Crushers in Game 3 on Wednesday night.
The road team jumped out to a 1-0 lead at 9:25 of the 1st period as Marco Martin scored his fourth goal of the playoffs for the Blizzard. Clint MacLaughlin tied the game at 13:26, but Carl-Anthony Massé put Edmundston back on top at 14:31 with a powerplay goal. Darien Thomson added another goal for the Eastlink North champs at 17:09 for a 3-1 lead.
Jérémy D’Astous scored at 10:32 of the 2nd period for a 4-1 lead. Ryan Walsh cut the lead back to two with a goal at 16:21 for Pictou County, but that’s as close as the Crushers would get.
Émile Fournier scored on the powerplay with eight seconds left in the 2nd period to make it 5-2. Philippe Collette and Jérémy Fortin added powerplay goals at 11:25 and 13:31 of the 3rd period for the 7-2 final. Austin Caley made 19 saves for the win, while Thomas Fontaine made 28 saves for Pictou County, while Yianni Karkoulas entered after the sixth goal and stopped four of five shots he faced in his first action of the playoffs.
Game 4 goes Thursday night in New Glasgow. Edmundston will look for the franchise’s second league title since moving to Edmundston before the 2017-18 season, while Pictou County hope to force a Game 5 back in Edmundston.