CORNWALL, Ontario – The Cornwall River Kings may have lost Saturday night – but one lucky fan walked away a winner.
Rodney Rivette picked up $25,000 for acing his shot from the far blue line into a small hole notched into the opposing net.
The winning shot came during the Jenni MacDonald – Dominion Lending $25,000 promo and the fans in attendance went bananas when the puck squeezed into the goal.
The River Kings, though, didn;t fare as well on the night.
Marc-Andre Huot scored four times to lead Trois-Rivieres to a 5-3 victory over the River Kings in front of 1,459 fans.
Huot’s hat-trick goal with 2:53 to play proved to be the winner as the Blizzard spoiled the debut of Cornwall’s new head coach Bob Desjardins.
Cornwall native Jason Lepine opened the scoring for the River Kings with a powerplay goal in the first period. Lepine snapped a shot past Marco Cousineau at 8:21.
Michael Tessier gave Cornwall a 2-0 lead with a powerplay marker at 4:29 of the second. Sasha Pokulok’s shot from the point bounced off the end glass, right to Tessier who buried the puck past Cousineau.
Trois-Rivieres responded with a powerplay goal of its own at 7:20 of the middle frame when Huot converted on a nifty give-and-go with Jonathan Bellemare. Maxime Boisclair levelled the score with 5:26 to play in the second. Boisclair pounced on a shot that bounced off the end boards to beat Loic Lacasse, who was down and out. The Blizzard outshot Cornwall 18-3 in the second.
J.P. Caron found a wide open Pierre-Luc Faubert, who beat Cousineau from the slot for Cornwall’s third powerplay goal of the night at 5:08 of the third.
But Huot took over from there.
With a delayed penalty coming to the River Kings, Huot scored his second of the contest to level the score once again with 4:07 to play. Then, on a powerplay, Huot completed the hat trick when he tipped in a perfect pass from Bellemare with 2:53 to play. Huot’s empty-netter iced it for Trois-Rivieres with 20 seconds remaining.
Huot (first), Yann Joseph, who had three assists (second), and Cornwall’s Andre Sandrzyk (two assists) were the announced stars. Trois-Rivieres outshot Cornwall 40-25.
NEXT WEEKEND: The River Kings hit the road next weekend with games in Jonquiere on Friday (8 p.m.) and Riviere-du-Loup on Saturday (7:30 p.m.).
HOME ICE: Cornwall is back on home ice Saturday, Feb. 7 when Sorel visits the Civic Complex. Game time is 7:30 p.m. A special promotion for this game will be announced tomorrow (Sunday) on the River Kings official Facebook page. (Facebook.com/TheCornwallRiverKings).
