Titan Defeat Broncos in OT

On the second day of the 100th Memorial Cup in Regina, Saskatchewan, Colby Sissons – a Devils prospect – and the Swift Current Broncos fell to the Acadie-Bathurst Titan 4-3 in overtime.

The Titan took an early lead just 8:02 into the first period when Samuel Asselin, who would become a force for the Titan throughout the game, scored from Olivier Galipeau and Jordan Maher.

But Swift Current, who had a large contingent of fans in attendance (Swift Current is only a short drive from Regina), would even things up on the power play. Acadie-Bathurst was assessed a bench minor for too many men on the ice at the 10:48 mark of the first and Tyler Steenbergen converted on the ensuing power play. Giorgio Estephan and Sissons had the assists. This was the first of two assists for Sissons and three points for Estephan. The game was tied up at one apiece.

Things would stay that way until the 18:59 mark when Estephan took a feed from Tanner Nagel and one-timed a shot by Titan goaltender Evan Fitzpatrick. Sissons had the secondary assist on the goal. It was now 2-1 Swift Current.

In the second period, the TItan would notch the first of their two shorthanded goals of the game when Asselin scored on a breakaway with an assist to Jeffrey Truchon-Viel. That had been set up by a Justin Ducharme slashing penalty at the 16:21 mark. The goal was scored at 18:07. The TItan would kill off the rest of the infraction.

But, consistent with the way the game (and the tournament itself) has gone so far, the Broncos would regain a 3-2 lead a little more than a minute later. At 19:11, Estephan struck again from Nagel and Swift Current was back in front.

In the third period, Acadie-Bathurst’s Antoine Morand was called for cross checking just 4:25 into the frame. But the Titan would strike with another shorty this time from Adam Holwell (assists to German Rubtsov and Truchon-Viel) to knot things up again, this time at three.

And that was it for regulation scoring. We headed to overtime and this one was quick. It only took two minutes and fifty-eight seconds for Liam Murphy to win the game (assists to highly touted prospect Noah Dobson and Truchon-Viel – who quietly racked up three points on the afternoon). The Titan won the game 4-3 to notch their first win of the 2018 Memorial Cup tournament.

For the goalies, Swift Current’s Stuart Skinner made 35 saves on 39 shots faced in taking the loss while Fitzpatrick stopped 24 of 27 shots in getting the win for Acadie-Bathurst. As for Sissons, he had the two assists for two points, was a minus-2 and had five shots on goal.

Truchon-Viel was named the game’s third star while Asselin was the second both for the Titan and Estephan was the first star in a losing effort for the Broncos.

Next up for Swift Current, it is the battle of Devils prospects when they take on Marian Studenic and the Hamilton Bulldogs on Monday, May 21. We will have coverage of that game for you here.

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