Opening-night hero Esteban Cinq-Mars made his AJHL debut a memorable one as he scored two goals to help the Lloydminster Bobcats christen the Cenovus Energy Hub with a 4-2 victory over the Fort McMurray Oil Barons in September.
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The 19-year-old defenceman from Longueuil, Que., skated past a summertime hand injury that derailed his hopes of a tryout in the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League.
“Well, I guess it’s good — I scored two goals,” a smiling Cinq-Mars said about his recovery from a broken hand. “It’s all good right now. It’s in the past.”
The future looks promising for the Bobcats as 1,827 fans showed up on a Friday night for the inaugural regular-season game at the 2,500-seat Cenovus Energy Hub.
“It feels amazing,” said Cinq-Mars, whose opening goal goes down as the first for a Bobcat in Hub history.
“We’ve been working a lot during the past few weeks — like, two practices a day, mostly. All the boys just want to win and today it just showed. Everybody was there. Everybody was putting on pressure.
“Scoring two goals tonight, I’m really happy, but the win is more important, that’s for sure.”
That winning feeling prevailed for much of the Bobcats’ first half of the season. They took a 17-9-3 record into the Christmas break, which began with news that Cinq-Mars is joining the Val-d’Or Foreurs of the QMJHL. He was fresh from an all-star showing with silver-medallist Canada West, including teammates Matthew Hikida and Raphael Messier and Bobcats coach Eric Labrosse, in the World Junior A Challenge at Trois-Rivieres, Que.
In their season-opener in September, the Bobcats owned the ice almost from the outset, even though the Oil Barons scored the historic first Hub goal when Trennen Redlick slipped the puck between Sam Madgett’s pads 3:25 into the game. Lloydminster quickly regained pressure and didn’t let up most of the night. Cinq-Mars scored at 6:15 on a wrister that beat Logan Cunningham on the blocker side.
After opening the scoring early, the Oil Barons failed to register another shot for the next 15:25, getting outshot 15-4 in the first period and 46-20 overall.
The Bobcats saw a would-be goal disallowed in the opening period after officials ruled the play dead.
Lloydminster broke open a 1-1 game in the second period on one-timer goals from Hikida (on a power play) and Cinq-Mars, respectively. Hikida and fellow returning forward Jack Ferguson each added a goal and an assist for the Bobcats.
Fort Mac’s 16-year-old rookie centre, Jaggar John, broke in alone to score the game’s final goal against Madgett, one of the three new goaltenders on Lloyd’s season-opening roster.
The Hub hosted its first game on a summer-like evening, warm enough for a ball game at the nearby Legion fields. The boat in the arena parking lot didn’t look entirely out of place.
Cinq-Mars and the rest of the Bobcats fired up the big crowd, with some fans sounding cowbells for the special occasion in Lloyd hockey history.
