Slight, PP propel Cataractes to major comeback win: Saturday’s 3 stars

No. 1 star: Gabriel Slight, Shawinigan Cataractes (QMJHL)

At 1:29 of the third period, Antoine Marcoux (1G) scored off a feed from Mathieu Ayotte (2G, 1A) to put the Victoriaville Tigres up 5-2 and the game was comfortably in hand, allowing the Tigres to cruise to an easy win, right?

Wrong. Penalty trouble and four powerplay goals later and Victoriaville is on the losing end of a 7-5 barn burner, and right in the middle of it was Slight (2G, 3A, GWG).

Slight scored the go-ahead goal at 14:45 of the third on the Cataractes third of four man advantage markers to put them up for good and ice the win. He also opened the scoring on another power play goal early in the first, and added three helpers, too.

All three of his assists went to Christophe Lalonde (3G), who fired a hat trick of his own into the Victoriaville net. Anthony Beauvillier (3A) and Dylan Labbé (3A) also had three point nights in a wild come-from-behind win for Shawinigan.

Lalonde’s second goal at 7:50 started the heroics, then four straight powerplay goals from the Cataractes sealed it, with two goals, including Slight’s winner, on Victoriaville captain Tristan Pomerleau’s major for kneeing.

The main story was the man advantage, as Shawinigan went 5-for-6, and Victoriaville went 2-for-3 to hold their own. The Cataractes jumped to 23-17-1-1 with the win, enough to leapfrog the Tigres into fourth place in the East Division. Marvin Cüpper (27-saves-out-of-32-shots)got the victory in goal.

Pascal Laberge (3A) had three points of his own in a losing cause. Chase Marchand (31-of-37) faced it all to take the loss, as Victoriaville fell to 21-17-1-4.

No. 2 star: Matthew Mancina, Peterborough Petes (OHL)

A first period goal from Hunter Garlent (1G, GWG) was all Mancina (26-of-26) needed as he shut out the CHL-leading Oshawa Generals 1-0 in Peterborough.

Garlent scored at 4:10 of the first period and then it was Mancina time, stopping all 26 shots the Generals threw his way for his first shutout as a Pete.

The Petes hung around with the Generals for most of the first two periods, though the third was a 11-6 shots edge for the CHL’s top team. Mancina saw them all, and he laid claim to his seventh win of the season.

It was Mancina’s first shutout of the year. He had three with the Guelph Storm last season in 28 appearances. Since being acquired from the Storm early in the season, the 18-year-old netminder has been splitting time with 16 year old Dylan Wells, who’s put up impressive numbers for a newcomer in the OHL.

Peterborough improved to 15-19-1-3 on the year with the win, while Oshawa dropped to 30-6-1-1. Ken Appleby (24-of-25)took the hard luck loss.

No. 3 star: Alex Forsberg, Victoria Royals (WHL)

Forsberg (3G, GWG) had a big night for his new team, as he had a natural hat trick for Victoria as they defeated the Prince George Cougars 5-2.

He finished off a three-goal period for the Royals in the first, and then held onto the magic until early in the third, when he got a goal 1:42 into the period, and then got the third one on the man advantage at 4:06 to complete the three-goal night in 1-2-3 fashion.

Brad Morrison (1G), scored just 52 seconds after Forsberg potted his third, so the celebration was short-lived, but Victoria hung on and breezed through for an easy 5-2 win.

Forsberg was acquired by Victoria from Saskatoon before the WHL trade deadline.

Four Royals had two-point nights, including blueliner Joe Hicketts (2A), who earned his first two points after returning from Team Canada at the 2015 WJC. The Royals pushed their cushion over the Cougars in the B.C. Division to six, as they rose to 22-19-2-1. Prince George fell to 20-23-1-0.

Honourable mention: Kevin Labanc, Barrie Colts (OHL)

The Colts’ top line of Labanc (1G, 3A, GWG), Joseph Blandisi (2G, 2A) and Brendan Lemieux (2A) were too much for the Sudbury Wolves to handle, not to mention Andrew Mangiapane’s (3G) hat trick, as Barrie doubled up the Wolves 6-3.

Labanc’s four points continues his points-streak to a very impressive 25 games. He has 53 points in that span, and hasn’t been held off the scoresheet since Oct. 30. The streak has helped Labanc to 70 points on the season, an even doubling of his point total from last year. The Sharks pick has 18 goals and 52 assists this season.

The Colts jumped to 24-13-1-1 with the win, while Sudbury dropped to 7-30-1-1.

Honourable mention: Ivan Nikolishin, Everett Silvertips (WHL)

Nikolishin (1G, 2A) was all the Tips needed in their 3-1 win over the Swift Current Broncos.

He had points on all three goals Everett scored on the night, all of them on the man advantage. He opened the scoring 33 seconds into the second period on a powerplay extended from the first, then he set up Noah Juulsen (GWG) for his game winner up a man midway through the period, followed by another assist, this one on Patrick Bajkov’s (1G, 1A) goal.

Swift Current got one back near the end of the frame, a Colby Cave tally, but it was too little, too late for the Broncos, who fell to 20-18-1-4 on home ice. The Silvertips increased their lead in the U.S. Division to seven points, and improved to 26-12-3-1.

Notables: Shutout alert: Miguel Sullivan (22-of-22) of Cape Breton zeroed in on Acadie-Bathurst, while Brandon Halverson (26-of-26) of Sault Ste. Marie blanked Plymouth in a 3-0 win. Jared McCann (2G) had two goals. … Kris Schmidli’s (2G, 1A) three points helped Prince Albert to a 6-5 win in Regina. Taylor Cooper’s (3G, 1A) four points weren’t enough for the Pats, neither was a three-point night from Adam Brooks (1G, 2A). … Oliver Bjorkstrand (2G, 1A) continued his hot play with a three-point night in Portland’s 5-3 win over Vancouver. Tyler Benson (2G) grabbed a pair in the loss. … Raphaël Lafontaine (2G, GWG) scored twice, his second breaking a 2-2 deadlock in the second period, as Sherbrooke defeated Baie-Comeau 3-2. … Markus Soberg (2G) tallied two markers for Windsor and Lucas Venuto scored the winner in overtime as the Spits downed Kingston 3-2 in extra fun. Even McEneny (2G) had both goals for the Fronts. … Wyatt Sloboshan (2G) scored a pair while teammate Kolton Dixon (3A) notched three assists in Saskatoon’s 6-4 road win in Kootenay. Levi Cable (2G) scored twice in the loss, while Luke Philp (1G, 2A) had a three point night for the Ice. … Julio Billia (36-of-39) held down the fort enough for Chicoutimi to come back from 3-1 down, tie the score on a Sébastien Gauther goal 6-on-4 in the final minutes, and win the game on captain Laurent Dauphin’s slick moves in a shootout 4-3 over Val-d’Or. … Connor Gay (2G, 1A), Presten Kopeck (2G, 1A) and Riley Sheen (2G, GWG) all scored twice for Red Deer as they trounced Brandon 6-1. Rylan Toth (36-of-37) made 36 saves. … Jack Flinn (35-of-36) made a number of key saves and Erik Bradford (1G) and Jaden Lindo (GWG) each had unassisted markers as Owen Sound defeated Belleville 4-1. … Markus Eisenschmid (2G, GWG, 1A) and Cole Sanford (2G) each scored a pair of goals in Medicine Hat’s 5-3 win over Kelowna, who had a three-game winning streak snapped. … Adam Tambellini (2G, 1A) and Calgary feasted on Lethbridge in the second period, where they scored five unanswered goals en route to a 5-3 win. Brayden Burke (2G, 1A) had points on all three Hurricanes goals in the loss. … Noah Zilbert’s (2G, GWG) two goals boosted Moncton to a 3-2 win in Saint John. … Davis Brown (2G) notched a pair and Jakub Chychrun (1G, +3) scored a beauty splitting the D off the rush in Sarnia’s 5-3 win over Guelph. … Joey Richard scored in the fifth round of the shootout to give Gatineau a 4-3 win in the breakaway relay. Charlottetown’s Filip Chlapik’s (1G) last-minute goal to tie the score nearly ruined Nicolas Lachance’s (44-of-47) night for a win, but he was able to hang on in the shootout. … Liam Stewart (1G, 2A) led the offence for Spokane in their 5-2 win over Kamloops. Tyson Verhelst (29-of-31) got the victory in goal, while the Chiefs were outshot 31-21 in the win. … Nikolaj Ehlers (1G, 1A, GWG) and Timo Meier (1G, 1A) each had a pair of points in Halifax’s 3-1 win over Blainville-Boisbriand. … Axel Blomqvist (1G, 1A, GWG) broke a 3-3 tie :47 seconds after the Oil Kings knotted it up and it was enough for Moose Jaw to get by Edmonton 4-3. Brayden Point (2A) had a pair of assists in the win. … Mark Shoemaker (GWG) scored his first career OHL goal to snap a 2-2 tie late in the second period and it held up as the winner in North Bay’s 3-2 squeaker over Saginaw.