Hockey: Bathurst trails fourth-place 'Cats by four points going into tonight's game against Gatineau

B10

Peter Assaff
Canadaeast News Service

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BATHURST - The Acadie-Bathurst Titan will be riding a four-game winning streak and a pair of red-hot forwards when they hit the ice tonight to play the Gatineau Olympiques in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League action at the K. C. Irving Regional Centre in Bathurst.

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Eric Faille

The Titan are coming off a pair of wins in Nova Scotia last weekend, that saw them improve their record to 12-14-2-1 and move to within four points of the fourth-place Moncton Wildcats in the Atlantic Division.

Last Friday, the Titan blanked the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles 3-0 at Centre 200 in Sydney, N.S., before doubling the Halifax Mooseheads 4-2 on Sunday in the Nova Scotia capital.

The Titan, who have also won five of their last six games, including their last three on home ice, are being led by 20-year-old co-captain Eric Faille.

With a goal and three assists last weekend, Faille now has points in 10 consecutive games, the longest active streak in the junior circuit. During that stretch he's picked up six goals and nine assists to give him a team best 30 points, including 14 goals, in 29 games.

Only 18-year-old assistant captain Jonathan Lessard, who had a goal in both of last weekend's victories and is on a six-game point scoring streak himself, has more goals than Faille on the Titan this season with 15. Lessard actually has the longest current goal-scoring streak in the QMJHL with goals in each of his last four games. He's registered five goals and two assists during that period.

The Titan are also hoping to see a spike in attendance tonight, as the club holds the first of two season ticket redemption nights this season. Last in the QMJHL in attendance with a per-game average of 1,427 paying customers so far this season, Acadie-Bathurst is inviting season ticket holders who have unused tickets from the cubs first 14 home games this season to use those tickets to bring guests to this evenings game.

Tonight's 7:30 p.m. game will be the second and final time the Titan will face off against the Olympiques. Gatineau, which is second in the Western Division with a 15-10-0-2 record, won the first meeting between the two clubs by a score of 5-1 on home ice Oct. 18.

Acadie-Bathurst is also at home on Saturday when they'll meet division rival the Prince Edward Island Rocket at 7 p.m. at the Irving Centre.

IN THE STANDS: The league disciplinary committee handed out some hefty suspensions in the wake of a pre-game fight Friday in Cape Breton between the Titan and the Screaming Eagles. Marshall Worden of the Titan and Ashton Bernard of the Screaming Eagles were suspended 10 games each for the scrap that took place in the warm up. Both players played in that contest, which Acadie-Bathurst won 3-0. In addition, Acadie-Bathurst head coach Ron Choules and Cape Breton head coach Mario Durocher will sit out their next two games because of the fight. Further, each organization was fined $2,000.

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PLAYERS OF WEEK: Rouyn-Noranda Huskies forward Philippe Cornet and Shawinigan Cataractes defenseman Charles-Olivier Roussel are the QMJHL offensive and defensive players of the week for Nov. 23-29.

Cornet wins the award for the second time this month after registering two goals and six helpers in two Huskies wins. Gabriel Lévesque (Huskies), Mike Hoffman (Saint John Sea Dogs) and Nick Petersen (Sea Dogs) were also considered.

In three Cataractes' wins, Roussel scored two goals, including a game-winner, and added three assists while posting a 3 rating. Mark Barberio (Moncton Wildcats), Marco Cousineau (P.E.I. Rocket) and Olivier Dame-Malka (Titan) were also considered.