Titans down 1-0 after 6-5 loss to Rattlers | Titans de témiscaming

Titans fall 6-5 to Rattlers in game 1

The Titans were hosting the Bradford Rattlers on Saturday evening at the Center in game #1 of the opening round of the GMHL playoffs. The game was similar to the four previous games unfortunately it’s the Rattlers that came out on top by a score of 6-5 to take a 1-0 lead with the teams now heading to Bradford for games 2 & 3 on Sunday evening at 7:30 and Monday afternoon at 4:30. The Rattlers opened the scoring early in the first period but the Titans replied about 3 minutes after to send the teams tied at one goal apiece after 20 minutes. Ryder Murray had the marker for the Titans. Another very early goal by the Rattlers in the middle period gave them another lead. But again, the Titans replied to knot the score at 2 on a Marc-Antoine Arseneau breakaway goal. But with only 20 seconds to play in the period the Rattlers regained their lead to send the teams to the final 20 minutes with Bradford leading 3-2. The Rattlers continued their trend of scoring early with their 4^th goal only 47 seconds into the third, 4-2 Rattlers. The lead then was increased to 5-2 at the 6:39 mark and it looked like the Titans were done for the night. But 2 Titans power play goals from Adrien Guenette and Guillaume Taupier 41 seconds brought them to within one, 5-4 Rattlers. Chris Levesque pulled Veli Makinen for an extra attacker with less than 90 seconds to play and the Rattlers scored in the empty net to make it 6-4. But the Titans were quite done as they managed another power play goal by Taupier, his second of the game with only 17 seconds. That’s as close as the Titans would get. The Rattlers were up to task this evening as at even strength they controlled more of the play. Several spectacular saves from Veli Makinen kept the score from getting out of hand in the second period. The Titans outshot the Rattlers 47-46. Guillaume Taupier was the 3^rd star.