Prince Edward Island surprises Quebec in their own building

QUEBEC CITY, P.Q. — Losing the night before in Drummondville, Prince Edward Island came to Quebec hoping to play a much better game. Expecting a much

better outing against a team ranked 11^th overall in QMJHL standings, Quebec was surprised by the P.E.I. Rocket 5-3. For Patrick Roy’s team it was their second consecutive loss.
 
“Players were very sharp in details tonight, we played well executing game plan well and we took advantage of our opportunities,” was the P.E.I. head coach Gordie Dwyer explanation for his team’s victory in Quebec on Wednesday night.
 
“I thought when we killed off those penalties in first period, I thought after that our P.K. was really sharp, we did a good job. We really executed that well and we were able to come back and get one goal on power play, it was huge for us. The attention to details was really good tonight.” Dwyer said about his team performance on the road.
 
Prince Edward Island struck first on their first shot of the game with only 5:45 gone in the opening period. A shot by Josh Currie hit Quebec defenseman Stephen Midenski’s back before going behind Quebec goalie Zachary Fortin.
 
Aside from the first goal, Quebec dominated in shots on goal 12-5 but nothing seemed to really work for Quebec.
 
Turnovers in their defensive zone forced Quebec goalie to make key saves with 14.8 seconds remaining. Thanks to Fortin who made save with his left pad Quebec trailed only 1-0 after one period of play.
 
While Quebec was the dominant team in the first period, things were different in second with the Rocket dominating 12-5 but also coming out of middle frame with 2-1 lead.
 
Mikhail Grigorenko gace some hope to the 9,511 fans in the building with only 1:17 gone in second. The Buffalo Sabres prospect, who had been selected in the first round (12^th overall) in 2012, took a rebound from teammate Jason Houde and slides the puck under Rocket netminder Maxime Lagace for his 24^th goals of the season.
 
A penalty to Quebec goalie Fortin for delay of game haunted the home team.
 
After taking the lead in first period, Prince Edward Island right winger Louick Marcotte gave the visitors their second lead in the game leading 2-1 after two periods of play.
 
Asked about his reaction after seeing his penalty be costly to his team the Remparts netminder didn’t try to dodge the question, “I tried to play the puck, the guy came in my back I felt down trying to control the puck without freezing it, but referee didn’t see the same thing as me so we can’t blame the referee on that one.”
 
Killing a penalty to teammate Jimmy Oligny at 4:55 in third period, the Rocket center and captain Josh Currie made it a   two-goal lead (3-1) with his 2^nd of the game at 5:41.
 
Quebec replied with next two goals tying the score 3-3. Playing with a man advantage Patrick Roy’s team cut Prince Edward Island lead in half with a power play goal their one in four attempts when Anthony Duclair found Jason Houde in the slot. Houde’s shot gave no chance to the   Rocket netminder.
 
Combining efforts to kill a penalty to teammate Ryan Culkin, Pierre-Maxime Poudrier saw Axel Rioux scoring his 4^th of the year before leaving for France to play with the National team in a Christmas tournament.
 
But two goals in 2:06 scored by the visitors came to blunt the Quebec effort leading the Prince Edward Island to victory.
 
Goals by Victor Provencher (12:28) last given by Fortin before being pulled by Quebec head coach Roy sending Francois Brassard to complete the game and Erik Ribichaud completed the scoring for 5-3 win.
 
“Honestly I’m not too happy,” answered the Quebec coach Patrick Roy after his team loses for second consecutive times. “When your team best line was Pierre-Maxime Poudrier, Axel Rioux and Patrick Walsh it means things….
 
“It’s funny because on Tuesday we practiced very hard with lots of intensity and we came in the game unable to maintain our intensity. We worked by sequence but we didn’t maintain our intensity. Honestly I wasn’t too impressed by my first two lines.”
 
Quebec will be back in action this Friday hosting the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies.
 
Three other games were on QMJHL schedule on Wednesday
Chicoutimi 5 vs. Cape Breton 2
Victoriaville 2 vs. Acadie-Bathurst 1 (shootout)
Saint John 5 vs. Rouyn-Noranda 1
 
Contact the author at: serge.poulin@prohockeynews.com  
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