ETCHEGARY LEADS LIONS TO ROUT OF TITANS

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Kurt Etchegary, a St. John’s native, scored three times and added two assists as the Lions du Lac St-Louis rebounded from Tuesday’s shutout loss to Winnipeg in a big way, routing the Halifax Titans 9-3 on Wednesday afternoon.

Etchegary played his minor hockey in St. John’s through Bantam last season before his family relocated to Quebec.

Despite the loss, it was the Atlantic Region champions who hit the scoreboard first thanks to a John Macdonald power play goal at the 12:15 mark of the opening period.

But Etchegary drew the Lions even less than two minutes later, and Anthony Duclair and Maxim Côté made it a 3-1 game in favour of Lac St-Louis (2-1) before the horn sounded to end the first 20 minutes.

Halifax (1-2) applied the pressure to begin the second period, and was finally rewarded when Brennan Saulnier notched his first of the national championship to make it a one-goal game midway through the middle frame.

Etchegary took over from there, scoring his second of the game to restore the two-goal advantage, setting up Alexandros Soumakis 20 seconds after that to make it 5-2 and completing his hat trick 1:24 after Soumakis’ goal to turn a tight game into a runaway heading into the final period.

Côté added his second of the game and Anthony Cortese pushed the lead to a half-dozen before the third period was 10 minutes old. After Ryan Falkenham got one back for Halifax, Neil Robinson capped off the scoring with a beautiful end-to-end effort in the final three minutes.

Lac St-Louis sees the ice at Mile One Centre next when it faces the Vancouver North West Giants on Thursday afternoon (3:30 p.m. NT), while the Titans take on the London Jr. Knights in Thursday’s early game (noon NT).