(FREDERICTON, N.B.) - The St. Thomas Tommies fell 5-3 to the Universite de Moncton Aigles Bleus in AUS men's hockey action, Friday night at the Grant-Harvey Centre in front of 612 spectators.
Pier-Antoine Dion, Pierre Durepos, and Steve Lebel all had two points for the Aigles Bleus, while Matt MacLeod and Zach Hall had two points each for the Tommies in a losing cause.
"I think they gave it a real good effort, but unfortunately we just gave up one or two too many chances," Tommies head coach Pat Powers said after the game. "It's unfortunate, but it's been the theme of our year this year."
The Aigles Bleus opened the scoring 12:11 into the game with a power play goal from Remi Blanchard, who buried a shot from the slot off a nice feed from Steve Lebel.
The Tommies outshot the Aigles Bleus 14-5 in the opening frame, but couldn't solve UdeM goaltender Brandon Thibeau and trailed 1-0 after 20 minutes.
"We had a ton of glorious chances, but for some reason the puck just bounced over our stick, hit the goaltender, missed the net, or whatever else," Powers said.
Zach Hall put the Tommies on the board just over four minutes into the second after tipping a Marc-Andre Levesque slap shot past Thibeau to tie the game 1-1.
Thierry Comtois reclaimed the lead for the Aigles Bleus midway through the frame and Christopher Guay extended it to 3-1 at 16:55 after deflecting a shot past Tommies netminder Tyson Teichmann.
"That's a team that continues to counter-punch, they hang around, and they capitalize on the opportunities they get," Powers said of the Aigles Bleus.
With just over two minutes to go in the second, MacLeod cut UdeM's lead in half after finishing a cross-crease dish from JC Campagna.
Despite outshooting the Aigles Bleus 11-8, the Tommies were down 3-2 heading into the final frame.
Adrien Lemay took over between the pipes for the Aigles Bleus to start the third.
Joel Blanchard put the Aigles Bleus up 4-2 just 1:26 into last stanza, but MacLeod responded for the Tommies, scoring his second of the night to cut UdeM's lead to 4-3.
The Tommies pulled Teichmann in favour of the extra attacker, but a turnover proved costly as Dion added an empty-net insurance marker to give the Aigles Bleus the 5-3 win.
The Tommies are back in action Saturday when they travel to Prince Edward Island to face the UPEI Panthers. The Aigles Bleus' next action will be in the playoffs.
Source: St. Thomas Sports Communications