Nobody would have been surprised if there had been steel bars installed in the door of the Abitibi Eskimos on Sunday afternoon, after the Eskis had finished a weekend sweep of the North Shore teams in the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League. Saturday’s 5-4 thriller over the improving Elliot Lake Bobcats was a fast-paced, cleanly fought contest, while Sunday’s 5-1 win over the Blind River Beavers was a nail-biter until the Eskis pulled away in the third period.
Bars over the dressing room door? There might even be chains and leg irons on the team bus.
Nobody’s going to be finding fault with Head Coach Paul Gagné if he uses fair or foul means to keep this team together for the rest of the season. Anything goes, when it comes to keeping Erik Robichaud from jumping ship back to the Québec Major Junior Hockey League.
This is not to say that his linemates, Brady Clouthier and Ryan Tront, aren’t right up there, close to the elite of the league players – but Robichaud, recently returned from stints in Acadie-Bathurst and Prince Edward Island, put on a show to remember over the weekend.
The gifted sniper not only scored three goals on Saturday, he added four more on Sunday, and, to make it a memorable day at the office, he assisted on three other goals for a nine-point weekend.
The line of Robichaud, Clouthier and Tront contributed a total of nine goals and 13 assists in the two weekend wins – Tront added another assist on a winning overtime goal by Zach Innes in Saturday’s game, making it a 23-point weekend for just three players on the team that had suffered two embarrassing defeats the previous weekend, giving up 21 goals in a pair of games against Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie.
Young goaltender Sylvain Miron took a much needed and welcome rest on the bench for the two games while new goaltender Brody Wagner, from Reading, Pennsylvania, more than earned his keep in the two weekend victories. He fell behind 3-0 to Elliot Lake in Saturday’s game – but his nerves settled as the game progressed and he ended up with 29 saves in earning the win. Sunday’s game was no cakewalk for 6’2” 20-year-old – he made 17 saves for his first two wins, in his first two games in an Eskis uniform.
Feature Picture :
Brady Clouthier raises his stick as he becomes airborne after scoring the tying goal Saturday in the Eskis 5-4 overtime win against the Elliot Lake Bobcats.
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The puck is in the back corner of the net – and Brady Clouthier registers his second goal of the weekend as the Abitibi Eskimos defeat the Blind River Beavers 5-1 non Sunday, sweeping a pair of games from North Shore teams.[/caption]
