The Maritime Junior Hockey League (MHL) champion Edmundston Blizzard had their season come to an end at the Centennial Cup on Thursday night in Calgary with an 8-2 loss to the host Canucks. The Blizzard entered their final game of the preliminary round sitting in fourth place in Group B, needing a win to assure themselves of a spot in the top three to advance to the knockout stage.
The game got off to a good start for Edmundston as Carl-Anthony Massé opened the scoring at 6:27 of the 1st period. Calgary struck back quickly, with three goals in just over two and a half minutes. Nathan Maloney evened the game with a goal for Calgary at 9:08, and Jack Plandowski scored on Frédéric Cousineau at 9:27 and 11:39. Bowden Singleton rounded out the scoring in the 1st period at 17:25 to put Cagary up 4-1.
Things settled down a bit in the second period. Hayden Fechner put the host team up 5-1 with a goal at 11:47. Marco Martin made it a 5-2 lead with a goal for Edmundston at 19:07. Calgary made it 6-2 just 13 seconds into the 3rd period with a goal from Gavin Schmidt. Riley Bracko scored at 7:50 and Plandowski finished off a hat trick with a powerplay goal at 9:23 to make it an 8-2 final score. Austin Caley replaced Cousineau after that last goal for Calgary.
Jérémy D’Astous led the Blizzard in scoring with two goals and five assists in four games. Massé, Will Allen, and Philippe Collette each had five points for Edmundston. Ten players had goals for Edmundston at the tournament.
While not the final result the Blizzard wanted, the MHL congratulates Edmundston on a stellar season.