QUEBEC CITY, P.Q. — Three goals scored by three different players in the third period led Quebec to their sixth consecutive victory. In victory, Jimmy Appleby played a key role keeping his team in the game especially in the opening period.
Appleby ended his night making 29 saves out of 30 Halifax shots.
Halifax began the game playing very good hockey shooting ten times against Quebec goaltender who refused to give anything to the Mooseheads. In fact, sent between the pipes for his tenth starts since the beginning of the season, Jimmy Appleby was the star of the opening period making three key saves keeping his team in the game.
Appleby made saves on Grant Girard (puck hit left arm), on Gabriel Desjardins when Remparts defenseman Alex Wall lost the puck in his zone and prevented Halifax from opening the scoring making another great save against Brent Andrews with his glove in second portion of the first period.
For their part, Quebec ended with only four shots against Mathieu Corbeil-Theriault in the opening stanza.
Frederic Roy on a two-on-one missed one of the two best Quebec scoring chances when he was unable to complete the play following a pass from Ryan Bourque. The second one came during first and only Quebec power play in the period on a penalty to Andrews for hooking at 13:52. Tomas Filippi’s shot hit the post.
Ticked by a first period where Halifax got the best scoring chances, Quebec came back in second period playing much better.
If Appleby played a strong first period, Corbeil-Theriault made key saves in second preserving his team’s one goal lead after two. Halifax forward Alex Lemieux was the only one to beat Appleby with a long wrister 22 seconds into the period hitting the top shelf.
Halifax still dominated the shots on goal 19-12 (9- 8 in Halifax favor in second period).
Joel Champagne broke the ice for Quebec in beating Halifax goaltender pushing the rebound shot taken by Remparts defenseman Alex Wall from the blue line behind Corbeil-Theriault tying the score 1-1 at 12:57.
An error from Halifax defenseman Konrad Abeltshauser led to Quebec’s second goal by John Audy-Marchessault. Trying to come out of his defensive zone, Abeltshauser saw 20-year-old Marchessault pick up the puck before scoring what became the game winning goal with less than four minutes remaining.
Ryan Bourque completed the scoring with Quebec’s third goal in an empty net at 19:09.
Quebec left right after the game, for Moncton where the team will face the Wildcats on Sunday afternoon.
Contact the author at: serge.poulin@prohockeynews.com
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