2016 TELUS Cup

LAC ST-LOUIS FINISHES PERFECT PRELIMS BY BLANKING VITO’S

DAVID BRIEN

QUISPAMSIS, N.B. – Mathias Laferriere capped off an impressive preliminary round with a hat trick, helping the Lions du Lac St-Louis shut out the Saint John Vito’s 5-0 on Friday afternoon in the final round-robin game at the 2016 TELUS Cup.

Laferriere scored in all five games and finished with a tournament-leading 13 points, helping the Lions become the first team since the Winnipeg Thrashers in 2008 to win all five of its preliminary-round games.

The Lac St-Louis victory means the teams will meet again Saturday night in the second semifinal (6 p.m. AT).
Lions captain Adam Capannelli added four assists in the win, leaving him one point behind Laferriere in the scoring race with 12, including a tournament-high 10 assists.

Yaniv Perets earned his second shutout in as many starts, making 20 saves. He stopped all 23 shots he faced when Lac St-Louis blanked the Saskatoon Contacts 4-0 on Tuesday afternoon.

Laferriere scored his first on the Lions’ first shot of the game, toe-dragging around a Saint John defenceman and wiring a snap shot off the inside of the far post past Vito’s goaltender Michael Parkhill at 5:47.

He scored again on a Lac St-Louis power play with 1:59 to go in the first period, going five-hole on Parkhill, and finished his natural hat trick at 2:14 of the second, again in the power play, one-timing a set-up from Capannelli.

Kevin Pitts played give-and-go with Capannelli just 57 seconds later, scoring to make it a 4-0 game.

The Lions scored their final goal at 11:56 of the third period when Azzaro Tinling jumped on a turnover in the Saint John zone and roofed a backhand, adding a goal to the two assists he had already earned.

The Vito’s did well to hold Lac St-Louis only 25 shots – it averaged 41 per game in its first four games – but could only generate 20 of their own, and failed to kill either of the Lions’ power-play opportunities.

Quebec Region champions have owned the host team in the preliminary round; Quebec teams have won seven in a row against the hosts, dating back to Winnipeg’s win over Laval-Montréal in 2009.