Lavoie scores twice as the Blues beat the Bears 4–⁠2 for their first league win

Charlie Lavoie scored twice, Loik Kinnear held the fort in goal, and the Riverview Blues did not take a single penalty as they beat the Kent Centre Bears 4–2 in Richibucto on Friday night. It was the Blues' first win in league play.

After three ties and a loss to open the league season, the Blues looked like a team that had found some chemistry. Carson Chappell opened the scoring in the first period, Lennon Lamkey and Lavoie scored less than a minute apart in the second, and when the Bears got on the board in the third, Lavoie answered on the power play.

Chappell breaks the ice

The Blues had the game's first power play, after a Kent Centre body-checking minor with 9:08 left in the first period, and the Bears killed it off. Chappell broke the ice anyway, unassisted, with 4:09 to go in the period with a filthy bar down snipe.

It was Chappell's fourth goal of the season and his second in as many games against the Bears: he also scored the Blues' only goal in the 1–1 tie in Riverview six days earlier.

Two goals in under a minute

The second period belonged to the Blues. Lamkey made it 2–0 with 7:26 left, set up by Levi Cameron, for his first goal of the season. Less than a minute later, Lavoie scored unassisted, with 6:42 to go, for a 3–0 lead. That goal stood up as the winner.

Cameron's assist gave him a point in three straight games: a goal against Shediac / Cap-Pelé, then assists in Moncton and Richibucto.

Lavoie answers

Kent Centre got one back with 7:26 left in the third period. Less than two minutes later, the Bears took an interference minor, and the Blues needed only seven seconds of the power play: Lavoie scored his second of the night with 5:26 to go, from Sheamus Gillespie, to restore the three-goal lead.

The Bears scored again with 2:18 left, then took a body-checking minor with 32 seconds to play, and the Blues finished the game on the power play. Lavoie's two goals were his second and third of the season.

Out of the box

The Blues never gave Kent Centre a power play. When these teams met six days earlier, eight minor penalties were called, five of them against Riverview. On Friday the Bears took all three, and the Blues scored on one of their three power plays.

Kinnear was in goal for the Blues and picked up his first win in league play. Lukas Pineau, who came into the night as the Blues' leading goal scorer, sat this one out, and Cullen Connors took his spot as an affiliated player, a night after his call-up for the 2–2 tie in Moncton.

Where it leaves them

The Blues are now 1–1–3 in league play, after ties with Lewisville, Kent Centre and Moncton and a 4–2 loss to Shediac / Cap-Pelé. Against the Bears, they are 1–0–1 this season.

Riverview scoring

• First period: Carson Chappell (unassisted)
• Second period: Lennon Lamkey (Levi Cameron); Charlie Lavoie (unassisted)
• Third period: Charlie Lavoie, power play (Sheamus Gillespie)

Penalties

• Riverview: none
• Kent Centre: three minors, 6 minutes

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