Saturday, May 17, 2008

Byron scores again; 'Piques fall in opener

Paul Byron scored his 22nd goal of the post-season, but Gatineau opened the 2008 Mastercard Memorial Cup with a 6-5 OT loss to host, Kitchener. Trailing 3-1, Byron crashed the net in the second period to slide a rebound past Josh Unice to close the gap to one. Before any of the eleven goals were scored, Byron made noise with the first hit of the game just :15 in that sent Rangers scorer Justin Azevedo down to the ice in the neutral zone. With coach Benoit Groulx separating the red-hot duo of Byron and Claude Giroux (51 playoff points) for most of the night, one may wonder if Gatineau takes the heat off each player, and rolls with what has worked best when they take the ice Monday against Belleville.