QUEBEC CITY P.Q. — After leading their series against Cap Breton 3-1, the Moncton Wildcats came back home with the firm intention of winning Game Five to close out the series. With an excellent performance by goaltender Nicola Riopel, the Wildcats clinched gave five 4-0 over Cape Breton Screaming Eagles to take the series and move on to the second round of the QMJHL playoffs.
Game 5 was a great example of another tough battle the Wildcats had to go through. Nicholas Deschamps , who was traded to Moncton at the trading deadline, was the first to break the ice in Moncton’s favor scoring 5:22 into the opening period completing a great effort by defenseman Alex Wall and Marek Hrivik for the only goal of the period.
The Wildcats adds two more goals in second period. Kelsey Tessier, another player the team acquired from Quebec in return of goaltender Louis Domingue, scored 41 seconds into the period. Gabriel Bourque scored Moncton’s third goal on the power play at 14:50.
Late in the game Cape Breton head coach Mario Durocher pulled is goaltender in hopes of avoid a shutout loss failed as Devon MacAusland scored into an empty net to close the game and the series out in favor of Moncton.
“The fourth game is the toughest to win,” said Wildcats head coach Danny Flynn in the Saturday morning edition of the Time and Transcript. “We know the series was far from over. These are two evenly matched teams and it’s always a hard-fought game against them.”
“If anybody had told us before the series that we would have a 3-1 lead coming home for Game 5, we would have said we will take that,” Flynn said. “We recognize they’re a very good team and we knew this would be a hard-fought game.”
Moncton wins the series four games to one.
Elsewhere in the QMJHL
In Gatineau: The Olympiques avoided elimination for the second the time by winning 4-1 against the Montreal Junior.
Denis Kindl (1-1), Yoan Pinette (1-1) and Tye McGinn (0-2) were the offensive leaders for Gatineau. Defenseman Adam Janosik and Olivier Croteau were the other scorers for the team coached by John Chabot.
Guillaume Asselin prevented the shutout for Montreal with his first goal of the series in the second period at 18:50. Montreal goaltender Jean-Francois Berube (28 shots-24 saves) and Maxime Clermont for Gatineau (19 shots-18 saves) were the respective goaltenders for each team.
Action will continue Sunday when Rimouski travels to Chicoutimi for game six, Rouyn-Noranda will play in Val-d’Or against the Foreurs and Victoriaville will go into Shawinigan.
Contact the author at: serge.poulin@prohockeynews.com
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