Panthers comeback bid falls short in double overtime, as Aigles Bleus move on to semifinals

By Thomas Becker

Their heart and resilience never wavered, but in the end it wasn't enough.

The UPEI Panthers overcame a 3-0 deficit and sent Game 3 to double overtime, where the Université de Moncton Aigles Bleus finished off the series with a goal from Olivier-Luc Hache.

It was a heartbreaking blow to the Panthers, who expected to play in the semifinals against the Saint Mary's Huskies later this week.

"You have to applaud the resilience and the fight. Being down early tonight, our boys continued to battle right to the end," said Panthers head coach Forbes MacPherson. "I thought in both portions of overtime, we controlled the chances and play, but that's playoff hockey." 

Moncton's Remy Anglehart scored two goals in the win and said the team's strategy was to keep the game simple. 

"We put the puck deep, forechecked, and when we got our scoring chances, we finished them," he said. 

The Aigles Bleus did a lot of that in the first two periods where they opened up a 3-0 advantage. Their first goal came at 3:06 when Hache battled for the puck along the end boards and sent a backhand pass in front to Anglehart, who flicked a shot by Jonah Capriotti for the 1-0 lead. 

Moncton struck again eight minutes into the middle stanza when Anglehart fired a shot on net from a difficult angle that somehow got between the goalie and the post to make it 2-0. 

On a power play 59 seconds later, the puck cycled to Thomas Pelletier, who fired a wrist shot from the point that beat Capriotti to extend the lead to 3-0.

While things looked bad for the Panthers, they still had plenty of fight left in them. They got a goal back at 12:05 when Kurtis Henry took the puck through the neutral zone and dropped it off to TJ Shea, who found Kyle Maksimovich driving toward the net where he slid one by goaltender Étienne Montpetit.

UPEI carried that momentum into the third period, where they pulled even. On a power play at 1:21, Maksimovich delivered a short pass to Troy Lajeunesse in the right circle, where he slung a wrist shot past Montpetit to cut the deficit to 3-2. 

Then with less than a minute to spare and the goalie pulled, Lajeunesse lunged to keep the puck in the zone before firing a wrist shot off the goalie, who gave up a rebound that Shea put away to even the score. 

With a spot in the semifinals on the line, tensions were high and every play felt like life or death. After the first overtime solved nothing, the Aigles Bleus eliminated the Panthers in double overtime on a great play from Hache, who gathered the puck in the neutral zone and stickhandled his way past a defender before tucking a backhand in the top right corner for the winning goal at 5:21

The Aigles Bleus will now face the UNB Reds in the semifinals, while the Panthers have 25 days to regroup for nationals.

Photo Credit: Janessa Hogan