“We just have a no-quit mentality.” “No matter what…. read more…

The Lakeshore Canadiens’ path to a series lead has been difficult.

The Canadiens lost the first game of the Schmalz Cup final, but they bounced back to win the next two games and tie the series.

The youngster Julian Gignac of the Canadiens commented, “We just have a no-quit mentality.” “No matter what, nobody is giving up, and we have confidence among ourselves.”

On Sunday, the 17-year-old Gignac scored the game-winning goal to lead the Canadiens to a 3-2 victory over the Clarington Eagles on the road. It came after Lakeshore’s 2-1 victory at home on Saturday, after they overcame an early one-goal deficit.

After the Canadiens lost the first game of the series 1-0 in Clarington, head coach Anthony Iaquinta noted, “All the games have been one-goal games.” Both teams are in it, and these have been incredibly good games. We’ve been playing well the past two games against them, who are a really good squad that doesn’t give up much.

The 2022 Schmalz Cup winners, the Canadiens, are presently up 2-1 in the best-of-seven Provincial Junior Hockey League championship. Wednesday night at 8 p.m. in Lakeshore is game four of the series.

Trevor LaRue of Lakeshore, who scored the game-winning goal on Saturday, stated, “We like to take things shift-by-shift, game-by-game.” “Right now, we’re mostly focused on Game 4. While it’s obviously good to snatch one while driving, we need to gather our thoughts and prepare in our own barn before moving on.

On Saturday, the Canadiens were tied after 40 minutes by Zach Vaillancourt, despite Clarington having a 1-0 lead after 20 minutes. Just before the eight-minute mark of the third quarter, Gignac set up LaRue for the game-winning goal.

Iaquinta stated, “We wanted to focus on ourselves because the first game was a feeling out.” We became aware of our mistakes when we took certain quick routes. Our goals were to increase the number of pucks that reached the net and accelerate our forechecking.

During a Lakeshore power play, LaRue feed Eric Bisson to knot the score at one in the second frame. Just 43 seconds into the third period, LaRue tied the score at 2-2 with a power-play goal.

Regarding the team’s comeback mindset, LaRue remarked, “I think it’s just a reality check that we’ve got to step it up and this group of guys has bought in and overcome a lot of challenges throughout the year.”

The Canadiens took a 1-0 lead midway through the third period when Blake Doe caused a mistake in the neutral zone. Bryce Scarlett then feed Gignac on a two-on-one, and Gignac finished the pass.

Gignac, a draft choice of the Windsor Spitfires, is one goal ahead of LaRue with 27 points in 22 games to lead the Canadiens in playoff scoring with 16 goals and 28 points in 27 games.

Gignac remarked, “There are so many guys around me that make that possible and it feels good to contribute whenever I can.” “Without them, I couldn’t have done any of it.”

Boe Piroski, the goalie, won with a performance of 37 saves on Sunday, while Nicholas Bolton won in the Lakeshore net on Saturday with 20 saves.

Iaquinta stated, “Home-ice advantage is big because both teams aren’t used to long road trips, but they’ve all been one-goal games.” “Any night, either team could have prevailed.”

We need to maintain a high level of intensity and energy. We’re tough to beat when we play hard and tough on pucks, but you’re going to get into problems if you try to cut corners, especially when against this club.