The Embrun Panthers travelled to the J. R. Brisson Complex in Casselman on Thurs., Feb. 20 to take on the Vikings in the CCHL2. The Panthers’ forward, Juno Gregoire (44) celebrates after scoring the Panthers fourth goal of the night on the power play in the second period. Helping celebrate were teammates, Jarrett Ladouceur (15) and Matthieu Brennan. The Panthers went on to take the game 4-2 guaranteeing them at least third place in the Martin Division. Moore photo
CASSELMAN—The Embrun Panthers played just a single game this past weekend as they travelled to Casselman on Thursday night to take on the Vikings in their second-last game of the regular season.
Panthers 4 Vikings 2
The Embrun Panthers travelled to the J. R. Brisson Complex in Casselman on Thurs., Feb. 20, to take on the Vikings in the CCHL2. The Panthers went into the game in third place in the Martin Division, just one point ahead of the Vikings who sat in fourth, three points behind the Ottawa Jr. Canadians in second place.
The Vikings looked to pull ahead of the Panthers with a win and a chance to avoid the Winchester Hawks in a mini best-of-three series in the first round. The Panthers looked to move to within one point of the Canadians and a chance to secure home ice advantage in the first round.
The Panthers opened the scoring when Maverick Labrie snapped home his sixth goal of the season from Cayden Martin and Juno Gregoire at the eight-minute mark of the first period.
Labrie scored his second of the game and seventh of the season at 11:40 from Jarrett Ladouceur and goalie Marco Latassa to give the Panthers a 2-0 lead. The Vikings got back to within one as Zachary Fournier lit the lamp for the seventh time of the season from Nicolas Chartrand and Adam Paquette at 15:30.
The Panthers regained their two-goal lead just 23 seconds later as Tristan Taillefer scored his 30th of the season from Nathan Brown. The Panthers took a 3-1 lead into the first intermission.
The Panthers took a three-goal lead when Gregoire scored his 11th of the season from Matthieu Brennan at 2:04 of the second period. Despite the Vikings outshooting the Panthers 13 to seven in the middle frame, the Panthers took a 4-1 lead into the second intermission.
The Vikings cut the deficit in half when Xavier Léveillé scored his eighth of the season unassisted at 13:58 of the third period. The Panthers were able to hold off the Vikings for the remainder of the third period getting a 4-2 victory.
With the win, the Panthers moved to within one point of the Canadians for home ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs with one game remaining. The Vikings ended their season with a fourth place finish and will face the Hawks in the first round of the playoffs.
The Vikings outshot the Panthers 37-32. Picking up the win in the Panthers’ goal was Latassa making 35 saves and suffering the loss in the Vikings’ goal was Zacharie Racine making 28 saves.
Up next
The Embrun Panthers welcome the Richmond Royals to the Palais des Sports tonight Wed., Feb. 26 at 8 p.m.
