QUEBEC CITY. P.Q. — The Quebec Remparts didn’t want to go back to Baie-Comeau and made sure of it by defeating the Drakkars 7-1 on Friday night in front of 11,045 happy fans. Meanwhile, in Bathurst, the Titans fought hard but lost in overtime 4-3 against the Olympiques to end their playoff series as well. In Quebec, Nathan Dunnett made several good saves in first period, trying to keep is team in the game, but Quebec was first to get on the scoreboard when defenseman Samuel Grouxl opened the scoring at 16:53 on a shorthanded situation. Remparts captain Kevin Marshall was in the sin bin for two minutes for slashing at 14:59. It was the only goal of the first period. Baie-Comeau goaltender made 13 saves on 14 shots before going back into the team dressing room with his teammates. Patrick Roy’s troops took control of the game in the middle frame by adding three more goals, two at even strength. Kelsey Tessier, drafted by Colorado Avalanche, added a second goal at 3:17, followed by Dmitry Kugryshev’s power play goal at 7:26, giving a 3-0 lead to the home team. The Drakakrs broke the ice with their only goal of the game by Guillaume Goulet that was unassisted on a power play situation at 10:52. The back breaking goal, or most often called “the killer goal”, came at 5:21 of the third frame when David Gilbert beat Francois Lacerte who came in relief of Baie-Comeau Dunnett in the second period at 7:26. “We were in the game until they made 4-1. We felt on the bench that it will be tough. We had a power play to begin the third period. We needed a goal that should have given us more energy. We weren’t able to score. Instead they got a goal that drained our energy.” Said Drakkars Head Coach Eric Dubois after the game. Team atmosphere was good after Baie-Comeau won the third game of the series, first at home, even after seeing Quebec earned the victory in the fourth game. “I would say the atmosphere was good yesterday, even this morning the players were confident. We knew that we didn’t play a really good game in the fourth game. The score was 3-2 at the beginning of third period tonight so the optimism was still there. It took some time for us to begin to play in last period, but the fourth goal really cut our legs.” said Dubois. Benjamin Breault, scored on a shorthanded situation ( his second of the game) at 11:03. Jean-Simon Allard (17:07) and Marc-Olivier Vallerand (19:19) completed the scoring for Quebec by eliminating Baie-Comeau in five games, and will get about 10 days off before facing their next opponent. When questioned by a reporter about Quebec’s two goals in shorthanded situations, Quebec General Manager and Head Coach Patrick Roy had this to say. “It’s funny sometimes because it wasn’t our best shot. We had several golden opportunities in the first period and we can’t buy a goal. The puck hit the post and the shot that beat him came from just inside the blue line.” “The Drakkars gave us good opposition in their building. It was two very good games. It was a good test for our team. As a coach, it forced us to make adjustments, and to analyze what the other did. It was a good experience for us. We will be better in next series depending on which team we face.” Nathan Dunnett played 27:26 minutes allowing three goals on 23 shots. Francois Lacerte allowed three goals on 21 shots for Baie-Comeau. Charles Lavigne allowed only one goal on 16 shots. In Bathurst, the Gatineau Olympiques ousted the Titans, also in five games, but needed overtime before eliminating their opponent 4-3. After neither team were unable to break the ice in the opening stanza, Bathurst came out strong in front of their fans by taking a 2-0 lead scoring the first goal at even strength when Artem Demkov scored twice, the second with a man advantage at 6:15. The first one came at 3:15. It didn’t took long before the visiting team cut Bathurst’s lead in half when Alexandre Touchette scored his second of the playoffs 27 seconds later at 6:42. Tye McGinn brought both teams to square one with his third goal of the playoffs on the power play with 16 seconds remaining before the siren sounded at the end of the middle frame. McGinn goal came at 19:44. Both teams traded goals in the third period. Eric Faille made it 4-3 for Bathurst 14:08 into what Titans fans thought to be the winning goal, but Gatineau tied the game at four when Olympiques defenseman Steve Delisle scored at 18:04 which led both teams into an exciting overtime. Unfortunately for Bathurst, the dream of forcing another game came to an end when Alexandre Touchette scored his second of the night to close the lights in the arena for the last time for Titan fans when Touchette scored unassisted at 1:30 of the fourth period. Nicolas Champion allowed four goals on 52 shots for Bathurst. Marc-Antoine Gelinas allowed three goals on 22 shots for the winning Gatineau goaltender. Contact the author at: serge.poulin@prohockeynews.com
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