Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Moncton makes a few more fans

7,085 Wildcat fans cheered as loud as they could, leading their favourite local sons on to victory on Monday night, the hometown Wildcats doubled up the Peterborough Petes 4-2, improving their record to 2-0 and setting themselves up just fine for at least a semi-final berth on Friday.

But if the Cats and their fans were happy with the outcome, imagine the joy felt by the Vancouver Giants, who knew that had Peterborough won on Monday, the Giant’s visit to the East Coast was going to be an unsuccessful one. With the Petes losing, the Giants now can gear up for their match with that same Petes team on Tuesday night, a must win for both teams, but more so for the Giants if they hold any hope of climbing back into the thick of things at the Memorial Cup.

The Giants who have dropped both of their games so far in the tourney, could only sit, watch and hope that Ted Nolan’s Widlcats would take the game to the Petes, and they wouldn’t be disappointed. Stpehane Goulet, returned to the Wildcat lineup after having had to sit out the QMJHL playoffs due to a bad knee, it was a part of his body that didn’t seem to be bothering him too much as he tallied up two goals on the way to the Wildcat victory Monday night.

The Cats were leading 3-1 heading into the third period and just kept taking the play to the Petes for the final frame, setting up shop in front of the Peterborough net and taking the play on the boards, controlling the flow of the game and making the best of their opportunities.

Moncton can secure a spot in Sunday’s Memorial Cup final by defeating their rivals from Quebec City on Wednesday, the Wildcat-Rempart match up will be a fairly hot affair as the two teams have been facing off against each other for the better part of two weeks now as the battled it out for the QMJHL title, Moncton went into the Memorial Cup as the winners of the Q, they are now but one win away from having a chance to complete their goal of a Memorial Cup as host city.

Another loud throng of 7,085 will greet those two teams on Wednesday night, it’s a safe bet that there won’t be very many of them cheering on the Remparts, perhaps a few Giants or Petes hoping to see things tighten up as they head for semi-final Friday. It’s a sentiment that won’t be shared by the bulk of the crowd though, they’re ready to watch their Wildcats grab that spot in the final, it will be up to Patrick Roy’s Remparts’ to derail the plan and add another level of tension to the simmering pot on low boil in Moncton this week.

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