The Riviere-du-Loup 3L snapped the River Kings winning streak on home ice with a 6-3 victory on Saturday night at the Civic Complex in front of 962 fans.
RDL scored four unanswered goals in the third period – two of them empty-netters. Cornwall had won its two previous games on home ice.
Rookie Jean-Christophe Laflamme scored the game-winning goal off a wicked bounce with 6:11 to play in the third period. Laflamme, all alone in front, was at the right place at the right time to beat a helpless Pete Karvouniaris.
Bryce Swan opened the scoring for Riviere-du-Loup with a shorthanded goal at 13:54 of the first. Swan one-timed a pass from 3L captain Sylvain Deschatelets past a sprawling Karvouniaris.
Maxime Villemaire extended Riviere-du-Loup’s lead early in the second with a breakaway goal 3:25 into the period.
The speedy J.P. Caron banged in a rebound to put the River Kings on the board at 13:23 of the second. Then, with 3:17 to play in the middle frame, Nicolas Larocque-Marcoux was left unattended in front and his tap-in goal leveled the score.
Moments later, Sy Nutkevitch sprung loose on a breakaway and beat Travis Fullerton to give Cornwall its first lead of the night with 2:25 to play in the second.
The 3L took over in the third, however.
RDL struck early in the third on a goal by Etienne Archambault , who one-timed a Chad Lacasse feed past Karvouniaris only 13 seconds in.
After the Laflamme marker, Swan, with his second of the game, and Marc-Andre Tourigny added the empty-net goals in the final 67 seconds of play.
River Kings defenceman Frederick Cote and Jean-Philip Chabot had a lengthy bout early in the second before Curtis Tidball and Samuel Levesque exchanged huge blows.
Cornwall outshot the 3L 41-35. Swan (first), Nutkevitch (second) and Caron were the announced stars.
ROAD LOSS: At Jonquiere on Friday, Loic Lacasse made 27 saves to backstop the Marquis to a 5-1 victory over Cornwall. Francois Ouimet, with a shorthanded goal, scored his 4th of the season for the River Kings. Jonquiere had five different goal scorers in the contest, played in front of 1,425 fans.
NEXT WEEKEND: The River Kings have a home-and-home series with the defending champion Thetford Assurancia next weekend. Cornwall travels to Thetford on Friday (8:30 p.m.) and the two teams meet the following night at the Civic Complex (Saturday, Dec. 5) at 7:30 p.m.
General manager and head coach Rick Lalonde has added another body to the beat up blueline.
Cornwall has acquired Casey Fazekas from the Thetford Assurancia in exchange for a 2016 draft pick.
The 27-yearold from Montreal suited up in nine games for Thetford last season. He had three points and eight penalty minutes.
The River Kings defence corps has been decimated by injuries in recent weeks. Fazekas is expected to be in the lineup tonight for Cornwall, which hosts Riviere-du-Loup.