QUEBEC CITY, P.Q. — Having lost the first three games of their quarterfinal series against Quebec, the Halifax Mosseheads won the next two coming to Quebec trailing 2-3. Playing in front of 11,871 fans the Mooseheads earned the right to play game seven a with 5-2 win Tuesday night.
Halifax first goal scored by Travis Randell photo by Serge Poulin
Bthe tween Mosseheads pipes Zachary Fucale played like a veteran making 33 saves on Quebec 34 shots in 56:34 being pulled by his coach for last 3:26 of the game wanting to give some rest for important gave seven on Tuesday.
“With less than 5:00 left to the game we didn’t want to take any chances. A puck near the goal, a scrum in goalmouth, Zachary is a key player for us so we just want to take the five minutes to be sure he will be in shape tomorrow,” Halifax head coach Dominic Ducharme said after the game.
“Making great saves Fucale brought lots of calm to our team, it was one of the reason why we still in control. When we needed big saves he did it.”
Halifax left winger (27) Jonathan Drouin photo by Serge Poulin
After the game, Ducharme faced the reporters with calm and confidence. “It was about a week I told you we took next game as game seven. Today we just earn the right to play in game seven. I think we earned it.”
“They have had strong moments in the game,” Ducharme sapd when asked if he believed in momentum. “They have had lots of power plays (1g-in-7) but we managed their strong moments in the game. We kept our calm and confidence. Like we talked this morning we learned a lot in that series, the way to play here, to react as the way it went our group continue to mature and it’s fun to see the way we react.”
Jonathan Drouin (2g-2a) and Nathan MacKinnon (1g-2a) led the offense for the Mooseheads.
“We have been look at it one game at the time,” the one who is perceive as the next number one pick in NHL in 2013 Nathan MacKinnon. “We were down 3-0 and we will continue to doing that. We know we have coming long way but in same time it could go either way tomorrow, so we will have to bring our best game and see where it will takes us.”
As the series has gone Halifax has improved their play.
“We played hard sixty minutes, even if they out shots us we know we had a great game, we matured as the series goes on it’s tough but we keep attacking them so that’s help our confidence and that puts them on their heels,” MacKinnon said.
Halifax netminder Zachary photo by Serge Poulin
The Halifax third line led by Travis Randell who broke the ice scoring first goal for Halifax with only 1:14 gone in the opening period. Taking a rebound from Brent Andrews, the Mosseheads right winger’s shot from the slot went in giving 1-0 lead to visitor.
Playing with a man advantage Quebec tied the game 3:41 later on a goal scored by Quebec veteran defenseman Vincent Barnard.
Frustrating former teammates Gabriel Desjardins near the goal crease with big save Zachary Fucale saw his teammates reward him by regaining the lead 2-1 With 3:11 to go in the opening period. Konrad Abeltshauser’s shot from 45 feet in didn’t give any chance to Quebec netminder Louis Domingue. Halifax goal has been scored four-on-four.
Halifax came back in middle frame adding two more goals. Jonathan Drouin with first of two goals game doubled Halifax lead 3-1 with 3:52 left to the period.
The Mosseheads scored the back breaker goal with 21.9 seconds remaining in the second period playing with a man advantage. Nathan MacKinnon’s shot beat Quebec netminder on the short side.
Quebec Cincent Barnard photo by Serge Poulin
Trailing by two Roy decided to pull his starting netminder in favor of sixth attacker hoping to see something going on. Instead MacKinnon came back in third period scoring his second of the night in an empty net with 3:26 left on the scoreboard.
Alexandre Contois scored Quebec second goal in the game at 18:23.
“No, but we need to keep our heads up,” answered Quebec coach Roy to first question about not been the best scenario? “We will have to play our best hockey in the next game. We aren’t in ideal condition for the type of situation but it is what we are in. We will have to find a way to do it. We have less than 24 hours to regroup and to play our best game of the season.”
We will have to be like them playing desperate hockey and show that we are able to turn things around. We didn’t play too bad in first two games in Halifax, the difference was they won one-on-one battle along the board. They took lots of confidence and tonight, they played very good game. Honestly I didn’t think we shoot the puck very well. We took lots of shots in the middle of the net. Our shots were way inferior to theirs.”
Both teams will be back for game seven on tonight.
Contact the author at: serge.poulin@prohockeynews.com
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