Congratulation: Back-to-back wins give Canadiens series lead in….

It has been a daunting road to a series lead for the Lakeshore Canadiens.

After dropping the Schmalz Cup final opener, the Canadiens have rallied with back-to-back games to take the series lead.

“We just have a no-quit mentality,” Canadiens’ rookie Julian Gignac said. “Nobody is giving up, no matter the circumstances, and we are confident within our group.”

The 17-year-old Gignac scored the game-winning goal on Sunday as the Canadiens rallied for a 3-2 road win over the Clarington Eagles. It followed Saturday’s 2-1 win at home by Lakeshore, which rallied from an early one-goal deficit.

“All the game have been one-goal games,” said Canadiens’ head coach Anthony Iaquinta, whose team dropped the series opener 1-0 in Clarington. “They’v been really good games and both teams are in it. They’re a really good team that doesn’t give up a lot and we’ve been answering the bell the last two games.”

The Canadiens, who won the Schmalz Cup in 2022, now lead the best-of-seven Provincial Junior Hockey League final 2-1. Game 4 of the series is Wednesday in Lakeshore at 8 p.m.

“We like to take things shift-by-shift, game-by-game,” said Lakeshore’s Trevor LaRue, who had the game-winning goal on Saturday. “Our main focus right now is Game 4. Obviously, it’s nice to steal one on the road, but we have to regroup and be ready to go in our home barn.”

Clarington held a 1-0 lead after 20 minutes on Saturday, but Zach Vaillancourt pulled the Canadiens even after 40 minutes. Gignac set LaRue up for the game-winning goal before the eight-minute mark of the third period.

“The first game’s a feeling out and one of things we wanted to focus on was on ourselves,” Iaquinta said. “We took some short cuts and that opened our eyes. We wanted to get more pucks to the net and be a little quicker on the forecheck.”

On Sunday, the Eagles twice took a one-goal lead only to see the Canadiens rally.

LaRue fed Eric Bisson on a Lakeshore power play to tie the game at 1-1 in the second period. LaRue hammered home a power-play goal just 43 seconds into the third period to tie the game at 2-2.

“I think it’s just a reality check that we’ve got to step it up and this group of guys has bought in and overcome a lot of challenges throughout the year,” LaRue said of the team’s comeback mentality.

Midway through the third period, Blake Doe forced a turnover in the neutral zone and Bryce Scarlett fed Gignac on a two-on-one and he buried the pass to put the Canadiens up for good.

A Windsor Spitfires draft pick, Gignac leads the Canadiens in playoff scoring with 16 goals and 28 points in 27 games, which is just one up on LaRue’s 27 points in 22 games.

“It feels good to contribute whenever I can and there are so many guys around me that make that possible,” Gignac said. “I couldn’t do any of it without them.”

Goalie Boe Piroski picked up the win with a 37-save performance on Sunday while Nicholas Bolton made 20 saves to pick up the win in the Lakeshore net on Saturday.

“Home-ice advantage is big with both teams not used to long road trips, but they’ve all been one-goal games,” Iaquinta said. “Either team could have won any night.

“For us, we have to keep our energy and intensity up high. When playing hard and tough on pucks, we’re hard to beat, but if you try to take shortcuts, especially against this team, you’re going to be in trouble.”