2012 Esso Cup

HALIFAX CLAIMS ESSO CUP TOURANMENT OPENER; SAGUENAY GOALTENDER EMY ST-JEAN TURNS AWAY 39 SHOTS

by Jarrett Arsenault

CHAROLTTETOWN, P.E.I. – Halifax Metro Boston Pizza (Atlantic) took the 5-1 win over the Rebelles de Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean (Quebec) in Sunday’s Esso Cup opener at the CARI Complex, with Laura Polak (Bedford, N.S.) contributing a goal and three assists and Breanna Lanceleve (Sackville, N.S.) adding a marker and two helpers to the score sheet.

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Halifax won the first face off, but Sophie Gagnon (Chicoutimi, Que.) turned it around to score the first goal of the tournament - and Saguenay’s only goal of the game – at 1:06 in the opening period. But Halifax quickly kicked it into gear and scored two goals less than five minutes apart, the first from Amanda Volcko (Halifax, N.S.) and Polak notching the next to make it 2-1 going into intermission.

The second opened with Halifax keeping the puck in Saguenay’s end, with netminder Emy St-Jean (St-Bruno, Que.) deflecting several huge shots to keep the team from Quebec in the game, but Danielle Eustace (Sackville, N.S.) snuck another puck by the goal line after seven minutes of play to make it 3-1 for the Atlantic representatives. Saguenay called a timeout to regain composure, and was able to keep it out of their end for the latter half of the period.

Despite hard fore-checking and solid defence from Saguenay in the third, Lanceleve made it 4-1 at 8:38 and Rachel Carr (Halifax, N.S.) took advantage of a scramble in front of St-Jean to score an unassisted goal at 10:54 and cap it off at a 5-1 final.

Next up for Halifax Metro Boston Pizza is host team Capital District Cyclones, with the puck dropping Monday at 7:30 p.m. AT, while Saguenay takes on the Pembina Valley Hawks (West) in Monday’s early game at noon AT.

Game Information
Game Number	1	Round	Preliminary
Arena	CARI Complex	City, Country	Charlottetown, P.E.I.
Month / Day / Year	04/22/2012	Time	12:00 PM AT
Attendance		Game Status	Final

Box Score	1	2	3	Total
Rebelles de Saguenay-Lac St-Jean (QUE)	1	0	0	1
Halifax Metro Boston Pizza (ATL)	2	1	2	5

Goals/Penalties

First Period

Goals:
   01:06 QUE 22 Sophie Gagnon (9 Ariane Pilote )
   03:18 ATL 17 Amanda Volcko (14 Laura Polak, 5 Breanna Lanceleve)
   05:33 ATL 14 Laura Polak (5 Breanna Lanceleve) PP

Penalties:
   04:06 QUE 10 Aryane Perron (Interference)
   06:37 QUE 87 Eve-Sophie Pineault (Interference)
   13:41 ATL 20 Kenzie MacPhee (Bodychecking)

Second Period

Goals:
07:25 ATL 9 Danielle Eustace (4 Carly Gray, 2 Alyssa Palmer-Dixon)

Penalties:
16:57 ATL 2 Alyssa Palmer-Dixon (Roughing)
19:48 QUE 1 Emy St-Jean (Roughing After Whistle)

Third Period

Goals:
08:38 ATL 5 Breanna Lanceleve (14 Laura Polak, 7 Rachel Carr)
10:54 ATL 7 Rachel Carr (14 Laura Polak)

Penalties:
03:39 ATL 18 Emma Winters (Holding)
16:52 ATL 55 Victoria MacIntosh (Hooking)

Goaltenders

Rebelles de Saguenay-Lac St-Jean

1 Emy St-Jean

On 1/00:00

Off 3/20:00

Halifax Metro Boston Pizza