Alex Rivet notched a hat trick, including the game-winner, to lead the L/A Nordiques to a 7-3 win over the Northeast Generals and clinch the NA3HL Coastal Division finals, two games to none, on Friday night at New England Sports Village in Attleboro, Mass.
The Nordiques move on to the Fraser Cup Championship in Woodbridge, Illinois. Pool play starts at 4 p.m. next Wednesday with L/A as the No. 1 seed.
L/A scored five goals on nine power plays. Northeast had two goals on nine chances with the man advantage. The teams combined for 108 minutes in penalties.
In what had been a back-and-forth contest to that point, Rivet scored what proved to be the game-winner with an unassisted power play goal at 3:42 of the third period to make it 4-3 L/A. He added another power play goal at the 8:22 mark. Valeri Rykov and Andrew McCormick added insurance goals.
L/A scored within the first minute of each of the first two periods to take the lead only to watch Northeast score equalizers.
Rivet opened the scoring with an unassisted goal 41 seconds into the game. Northeast answered with a power play goal by Tyler Rudek with 22 seconds remaining in the period.
Sergei Anisimov put the Nordiques back in front with a power play goal 36 seconds into the second period. The Generals tied it again, this time at even strength, when Jeffrey Sidoit found the back of the net at 11:56 of the second.
Josh Petrucci gave the Generals their first lead of the game with their second power play goal at 2:18 of the third period. But the Nordiques tied it again at 3-3 just 19 seconds later on Sam Frechette’s first goal of the playoffs.
Cole Ouellette finished with two assists for the Nordiques. Anisimov, Rykov and Frechette also finished with two points apiece.
Andrew Ghimpeteanu stopped 27 of the 30 shots he faced in net for L/A. Jeb Barrett had 18 saves on 25 shots faced for Northeast.
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