When Friday started there were just three New York Rangers prospects still playing but at the end there were just two left. Yet the real story was the five overtime thriller of a game that was minutes from becoming the longest playoff game ever played in junior hockey history.
Raould Boilard tried his best to help his Baie-Comeau Drakkar finish off the Cape Breton Eagles in their QMJHL first round playoff series. But it was just not meant to be as the Eagles and Drakkar went to five overtimes before the Eagles earned a 3-2 win.
Boilard did his part with a 1-1-2 evening but that was during regulation as Boilard set up the Drakkar’s first goal. In the first period with the teams skating “four on four”, Boilard stole the puck away from an Eagles player then somehow feathered a pass between two players over to linemate Matyas Melovsky who beat the Eagles goalie to tie the game up at 1-1.
In the second period with the score still tied at one, Boilard won a faceoff and the puck worked its way back to him inside the right faceoff circle when Boilard just threw the puck at the net and it went in to give his team a 2-1 lead. It was Boilard’s second goal of the playoffs.
The Eagles would tie the game in the third period and then the game got interesting. The overtime periods were dominated offensively by the Drakkar as they repeatedly out shot the Eagles but give credit to Eagles goalie Milota who set an Eagles franchise record with 84 saves.
The 84 saves were also the second most in QMJHL history as this moved from the first overtime into the second then third and fourth before finally in the fifth overtime, Cape Breton’s Angelo Fullerton scored at 1:41 of the period to give his team the win.
At 141:42 this was the second longest playoff game in QMJHL history just missing the record of 146:36 set in 1999. The win cut the Drakkar series lead to 3-2 forcing the series back to Baie-Comeau on Monday for game six.
Boilard in addition to his 1-1-2 was credited with five shots with a +2 and he was 24-21 on his faceoffs. Boilard is now 2-4-6 in the playoffs and overall is 14-38-52 as he becomes the prospect leading scorer.
Nathan Aspinall and his Flint Firebirds trying to earn a game five win that would send the series back to Flint for a sixth game. But it did not happen as the Kitchener Rangers earned a 2-1 win to win the series 4-1 and end the season for the Firebirds.
Aspinall was scoreless and credited with three shots. The normal left wing was the first line right wing for this one.
Aspinall finished his playoff run 2-1-3 as he finishes his season 19-31-50. The Rangers 2024 fifth round pick improved upon his offensive numbers from his draft year (18-16-34) as he showed a nice improvement as the season went on.
It is fair to say that expecting the 6’7 200 lb forward to have a breakout season in 2025-2026 is not a stretch of the imagination. For us his magic number is going to be 30 as in how many goals we expect from him next season.
If Aspinall can score 30 or more goals then whoever is the Rangers General Manager is going to offer him a entry level contract. This was just his second full year in the OHL so he is not eligible to move up to Hartford this year.
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