Wednesday April 26

Late rally not enough as Golden Knights fall to Ducks

(5)Ducks vs Golden Knights(4)

A late push wasn’t enough to erase a slow start for the Golden Knights on Wednesday night. M.Estrela and Eddy used two late goals, but the Ducks, backed by some outstanding goaltending by G.Kanaras, hung for a close 5-4 win. The Ducks did all of their damage in the first twenty five minutes. F.Bchara and P.Carone did much of the scoring sharing two goals each while E.Charbonneau got the other tally. Looking like they were in fine control of the situation, the ending wasn’t quite what they had hoped for despite getting the result. It looked as though the Golden Knights decided that it was there turn to take over on a relentless push. The charge was led by M.Estrela as the sneaky forward used back to back tallies as part of a three point effort. If not for some key sensational saves, the Golden Knights may have come back to steal this one. Instead, the Ducks hung back, and played out the clock to their advantage.

The Allo Mon Coco Ste-Dorothee player of the game goes to George Kanaras of the Ducks. The net minder was firm, sharp an ready to make a difference. After facing a ton of quality chances, the Ducks captured the win thanks to his brilliant performance.

Stars ignite late on character win over Senators

(7)Stars vs Senators(5)

Sometimes you get games where a team is a little bit down and out or not getting the breaks, then all of a sudden, you get one and things start to turn around. That was the case for the Stars as a slow start flipped into a solid finish where they rattled off six of their seven goals in the last twenty minutes. Prior to that point, the Senators took command striking early on three goals by R.Kilgour, A.Rossi and M.Lafleur. It took  the twenty one minute mark before B.Sorice finally got to S.Sauk. Still, the Senators weren’t overly concerned as they stuck with it carrying their two goal lead. And even though S.Chayer narrowed the gap within one, S.Ouellette was able to respond to restore a two goal cushion. It seemed that things started to shift at about the thirty seven minute mark where the Stars lit up riffling the games next four of five goals that eventually put them in front courtesy of N.Boctor-Awad penalty shot goal. Once they went in front, the Stars were able to close things out getting a big insurance marker by M.Braun. This result came as a charter win for the Stars. It involved a come-from behind effort on the backs of seven different players finding the back of the net.

The Allo Mon Coco Ste-Dorothee player of the game goes to N.Boctor-Awad of the Stars. Highly influential in the win, N.Boctor-Awad set up three teammates while converting on a late penalty shot that held up for the winner.

Ducks pull away after some early back and forth action with the Oilers

(9)Ducks vs Oilers(5)

Even though the Ducks hung in there early on by trading goals with the Oilers, it seemed as though time would have caught up to a team that played earlier having to go up against a quicker and fresher side. If the Oilers could have pulled in front on getting at least a two goal lead while playing a sound man on man game, they could have gotten there. Unfortunately for the Oilers, it took on strong sequence for the Ducks to benefit on some chances and pull away toward the latter stages of the match. The Ducks knew that they just had to play cautiously without the ball by that point since the Oilers were putting the pressure to try and comeback. Since defending doesn’t involve too much running, the Ducks were more than ok sticking to that game plan. Just for good measure, T.Scarpelli cashed in twice for some insurance ,and G.Kanaras was able to record his second win of the night after some solid goaltending.

The Allo Mon Coco Ste-Dorothee player of the game goes to Steve Vanpoucke of the Ducks. The mobile d-man backed the offense using three big shots that had eyes finding its way behind the net.