The one-two punch of Tyler Michaud and Matty Belanger provided just enough offense, as the St. Charles College Cardinals kept their sights set on the front-running Collège Notre-Dame Alouettes this week, recording a pair of key wins.
The Cards doubled the Confederation Chargers 4-2 on Monday night, with Belanger and Michaud each scoring once in the first and assisting on the goal of the other, before captain Ethan Lamarche snapped a 2-2 deadlock with a third period tally with 5:03 to play.
Belanger picked up his second assist of the game of that goal, and Michaud provided the insurance with an empty-net marker as St. Charles improved to 8-1-0. Second period replies from Aiden Chmielak and Kyle Preseau accounted for the offensive production for Confederation, who have also secured a Divison "A" berth with their record of 5-3-0.
"We've been doing well, but we can move the puck a little more, keeping our heads up and stuff, and picking our corners," said Belanger, a 15-year old grade 10 student who made the jump from years of "AA" hockey to the high school league this past fall.
"You've got to keep you head up on the ice. You've got a lot of bigger kids coming at you, trying to hit you hard."
The only blemish on the SCC win-loss record was a 6-1 setback against CND, a few weeks after the Cards bested the Alouettes in the final of the Lively Tournament.
"I don't think we were ready for that game," said Belanger. "Now, we're concentrating and ready to go, all the time."
It sure looked that way again on Wednesday, as St Charles thumped the Horizon Aigles 9-3 in Val Caron.
A well distributed Cardinals' offense featured a pair of goals from Carter Rollins and singles from Nick Chokan, Callum Roque, Joe Guzzo, Evan Lamarche, Brandon Labre, Michaud and Belanger, with Bradley Pressé, Ryan Boudreau and Kory Landry replying in a losing cause.
In one other game this week, the Notre-Dame Alouettes received two goal efforts from Julien Tubin, Nicholas Graham and Mathieu Desormeaux, coasting to a 10-2 win over the Manitoulin Mustangs.
Rounding out the scoring for CND were Cameron Mostoway, Patrick Godin, Alexandre Baronnette and Mika David, while Joel Grandbois recorded three assists. Alex Smith scored both goals for Manitoulin, who were outshot 35-21 in the contest.
Two games on Thursday close out the first half schedule, when the ten team league divides into two groupings of five, with Notre-Dame and Confederation going toe to toe, while the matchup with key playoff implications features the Lo-Ellen Park Knights (4-4-0) against the St. Benedict Bears (3-5-0) at 6:30 p.m. at the Gerry McCrory Countryside Sports Complex.
