Aigles Bleues come from behind to beat Panthers 4-3 at annual Pink at the Rink game

(CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I.) – Moncton scored two big third period goals and stopped a penalty shot to get the comeback victory against UPEI at MacLauchlan Arena in Charlottetown in front of 125 fans on Wednesday night.

With the win, the Aigles Bleues improve to 17-4-2 on the season and sit in second place with a first round playoff bye clinched, while the Panthers fall to 7-13-3 and sit seventh in the conference standings, one point out of the playoffs.

This evening, UPEI held their annual "Pink at the Rink" night to raise awareness and funds for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. Prior to the game there was a ceremonial faceoff done by cancer survivors, Patsy Huggan and Fred Bradley. Patsy is UPEI athletic director Chris Huggan's mother and Fred is UPEI assistant captain Laura Bradley's grandfather.

Bradley (Morell, P.E.I.) took part in the puck drop for UPEI while Marika Lacroix (Orleans, Ont.) did for Moncton.

There were no goals scored in the first period despite Moncton peppering Marie-Soleil Deschenes (Île-Perrot, Que.) with 13 shots in the period. UPEI was only able to get three shots on net in the period, but escaped with the score still tied.

The second period was a different story with five goals scored between the two teams in the period.

Kiana Strand (Invermere, B.C.) scored first for UPEI 2:33 into the period.

Lacroix then scored on a 5-on-3 for Moncton three minutes later from Marie-Pier Arsenault (Bonaventure, Que.) and Manon Lamarre (Regina, Sask.).

Still on the same power play, Véronic Thibeault (Val D'Amour, N.B.) put a shot in the back of the net from Marie-Pier Corriveau (Magog, Que.) and Amélie Dion (St-Jean-Baptiste, Que.).

Strand then tied it back up for UPEI 54 seconds later with a tip-in off a point shot by Bria Harding (Plaster Rock, N.B.).

Captain Ferran Brown (Calgary, Alta.) also picked up a helper on the goal. To cap off the high scoring period, Bradley put UPEI in front 3-2 with a slap shot from the point on the power play with Sam Sweet (O'Leary, P.E.I.) getting an assist on the goal.

Moncton outshot UPEI 12-10 in the period.

Kaitlyn Gallaway (Stratford, P.E.I.) tied the game up for Moncton 2:24 into the third period off a pass from Cynthia Léger (Moncton, N.B.).

Moncton then had a couple of great chances on a 5-on-3 that UPEI was eventually able to kill off.

The two teams then traded penalties, both of which were killed off.

With 53 seconds left, a costly UPEI turnover deep in their own zone led to an easy goal for Amélie Larivière (St-Georges, Que.) from Arsenault.

UPEI then pulled Deschenes to add an extra attacker and actually drew a penalty shot with 25 seconds remaining.

Emilie Bouchard (Casselman, Ont.) stood strong in the net and stopped Strand's attempt to tie the game, sealing the win for Moncton.

The Aigles Bleues outshot the Panthers 9-8 in the final frame.

Bouchard stopped 18 of the 21 shots she faced including the penalty shot in the last minute, while Deschenes stopped 30 of the 34 shots she faced in the loss.

The Subway player of the game was Kaitlyn Gallaway for Moncton.

Moncton has their final regular season game Friday at home against St. Thomas (9-10-4) at 7 p.m. UPEI has their final game of the regular season on Friday at StFX (20-2-0) at 7 p.m.

Source: Ryan Lloyd for UPEI Sports Communications