L/A Nordiques’ Colby Audette and Roc City Royals Jacob Leblanc play the puck in Saturday night’s game at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee.
LEWISTON — On Saturday night, the L/A Nordiques showed their scoring depth in their contest against Roc City.
Led by relative newcomer Colby Audette, who had a hat trick, six players found the scoresheet in a 10-0 victory over the Royals in front of 756 fans at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee.
“He is a new player that we picked up from Vermont,” Nordiques coach Cam Robichaud said. “He came to us from the (United States Premier Hockey League). He’s a really good kid, a really fast kid and a great skater. He has a couple schools that are interested in him. He’s a kid I was recruiting over the summer and started the year at somewhere else and it wasn’t working out for him.”
Audette has six goals and a helper in four games with the Nordiques.
The Nordiques started started out strong, as they came out firing the puck on the Royals goalkeeker Frederick Peters. Peters did a good job for most of the opening 20 minutes of keeping L/A off the scoreboard.
“We had a lot of shots. I am looking at the scoreboard right now, and it was (56) shots,” Robichaud said. “I will tell you what, at the start of the game, he kept them in it in the first period. I think we had 16 or 17 shots and he had some really good saves. I was a little nervous at first. I said, ‘We might be running into a hot goaltender tonight.'”
Robichaud said the Royals were missing Brandon Corey, their top player who had 94 points last year, and others due to injuries and school commitments.
That changed in the final 3:02 of the period when the Nordiques scored twice for a 2-0 lead at the first intermission. Connor Kennedy potted his third goal of the season at the 3:02 mark on an unassisted effort. With 22 seconds remaining in the stanza Crewz Berry found the back of the net with his third goal of the year, with Shayne Plummer notching the assist.
The Nordiques outshot the Royals 16-5 in the first.
L/A carried the momentum in the second period. Sam Frechette potted his third goal of the year on the power play off a feed from Cole Ouellette and Plummer at the 6:47 mark.
Just past the midway point of the period, Colby Audette found the back of the net for his first goal. Ouellette notched his second assist of the game and Clifford Ogle also had a helper on the play.
Caleb Labrie made it 5-0 with 6:18 remaining in the second period. His goal was set up by JP Chauvin and Frechette. Audette notched his second goal of the period with 4:43 remaining.
Labrie and Plummer are No. 1 and No. 2 in the league in scoring — Labrie has 31 points, while Plummer has 28.
Both goals came on the man-advantage.
Plummer potted his seventh goal of the season 8:22 into the third period. Andrew McCormick and Labrie picked up the assists. Audette scored his third goal of the game with 6:10 remaining in the contest. The assist went to Berry.
Frechette and Plummer made it 10-0.
Michael Errico made 25 saves for the Nordiques for the shutout. Peters also made 25 saves, and Josh Martinez stopped 21 shots in relief of Peters.
nfournier@sunjournal.com
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