Canadiens down 2-0 in NEAJBHL Final to Bisons

The St. Paul Canadiens find themselves down 2-0 in the NEAJBHL after this weekend and are looking to turn things around on home ice starting tonight.

Battling the Wainwright Bisons on the road over the weekend, the Bisons took Game 1 by a 5-2 score, before a 7-2 rout on Sunday night.

The Bisons scored four unanswered in the first period of Game 2. Despite getting goals from Janson Pashniak and Ty Stanski in the 3rd period, it was too little, too late for the Canadiens, who look to reverse those fortunes at the Clancy Richard Arena.

“I didn’t hate our start at all. They got one good chance early and capitalized on it obviously, but you get chasing a game like that against a team like this, you’re going to be fighting an uphill battle all night,” said coach Shawn Germain in the postgame. 

“We have to get back to where we know we can play. Right now, there’s just too many passengers. We need some guys to really step up for us. This is nowhere near as good as we can be. We know that. We’re just looking to go home and find our game.” 

In Game 1, the Canadiens got the lone first period goal from Nico Beaudoin and followed it in the second period with an early tally from Domenic Morin to take a 2-0 edge. However, that’s where the goal scoring ended as Vaughn Holbeche shut the door the rest of the way.

The Bisons then scored four unanswered goals before the end of the 2nd frame, and the Canadiens couldn’t find a way to claw back in the game.

It’s a best-of-seven series so the Canadiens are by no means done, but they’ll need to be firing on the same cylinders that brought them past Killam in the semi-final, and get back to their style of game, particularly on special teams.

“There’s a certain level of sacrifice you need to play on that penalty kill. And we just aren’t doing that right now. You got to want to get in shot lanes, you have to want the puck. If you don’t do that you’re going to be in trouble.”

Game 3 gets going from the Clancy Richard Arena at 8:00pm Tuesday night. Game 4 begins is Friday night also at 8:00pm.

Regardless of what happens in this final, the Canadiens are still heading to Provincials because Wainwright is the host of that tournament.

You can follow the action with pre-game, intermission, and post-game interviews with Husband Chad.