QUEBEC CITY P.Q. — A third period goal by rookie Jason Rajotte helped the Quebec Remparts win their home opener over the Lewiston MAINEiacs 5-3 in front of 11,089 happy Remparts fans on Sunday afternoon to even their regular season record at 1-1. Quebec didn’t waste time to open the scoring at home. A penalty to Lewiston left winger Mathieu Gingras (3:41) lead to Remparts first goal in the game seven seconds later. Marc-Olivier Vallerand shot beat MAINEiacs’ goaltender Adrien Lemay to his stick side. Another penalty to Lewiston center Maxime Chaput gave Quebec the opportunity to add their second goal in the opening period. Maxime Gravel took the puck from a rebound shot from Mikael Tam and beat Lemay blocker side at 17:08. Lewiston missed an excellent chance to get on board when they blew a two men advantage to begin the second period. Remparts netminder Jean-Philippe Gagnon made several good saves keeping his team’s two goal lead. The MAINEiacs scored their first goal of the game in the second period at even strength when former Remparts property Sebastien Trudeau (traded last summer to Lewiston) put the puck behind the Quebec goaltender on a third rebound at 6:52. Quebec would regain their two goal lead when Gravel scored his second of the night at 10:12. The MAINEiacs scored two goals in less than three minutes in third period bringing both teams back to square one at 3-3. Alexis Piette got the visiting team on board at 4:50 cutting Quebec’s lead to one goal before another former Quebec property defenseman Samuel Carrier (also traded last summer to Lewiston) get the MAINEiacs tying goal at 7:23 of the third period. Quebec came roaring back with the last two goals of the game when Jason Rajotte completed a great effort by Vallerand and Samuel Lachance at 14:55. Jonathan A. Marchessault completed the scoring for the Remparts with an empty net goal with only one second left on the clock. “It’s always fun to get the winning goal but I’m more satisfied by the team victory,” said Rajotte after the game. “On Friday night we lost the game so this afternoon we showed some character coming back in third period.” When discussing their first half of third period when Quebec didn’t seem to play their best, Rajotte said that they were “playing without eight veterans for the second game in a row (due to professional training camp). All of the lines played well with the help of some veterans who showed us the road. We regained our confidence and played much better the rest of the game.” One of those veterans (Vallerand) seemed happy about the team’s first victory of the 2009-10 season. “Like Patrick (Roy ) said the other night, we were little bit unlucky against the Oceanic, so the importance of today was to begin the game right to get the momentum. I’m very happy to break the ice today and win the game.” The veteran was the first to acknowledge that his team had some problems in their own zone in the third period. “I think we had little problem in our defensive end. We didn’t get the puck out of our zone enough and they scored their goals on it,” said Vallerand. “We have to give credit to our opponent, they took their chances. Lewiston got the best of us in our zone much of the game. We will have to work and correct it. With his two goal performance, Gravel was the first to recognize the work of his teammates. “It went pretty well for me but Dominic Savoie and Julien Corriveau played a good game and that helped me. Anyone could get the two goals. It’s important to win our first game in front of our fans. We have to give to our fans what they want. I think we gave a good show. We worked hard, and our opponent worked hard too. It was a good game,” the former Victoriaville left winger said. Quebec head coach, Patrick Roy, admitted after the game that he was nervous before the game in regards of how his young team, minus eight players, would react in their first game at home, but at the same time he was praising the way his team played this first game in le Colisee. “We always hope to play a great game in front of our fans. We had a great crowd this afternoon, but on the other hand I have to admit that I was little nervous with eight players missing due to professional training camp,” said Roy. “We always asked how the players will react. We had a great week of practice. The guys worked hard. I was confident we can play a good game but getting three out of possible four points (one point won in Friday night loss against Rimouski),” said Roy in his press conference after the game. “I tip my hat off to the players,” Roy continued. “offensively we found a way to score goals. We competed well along the boards and in front of the net screening the other goalie. Our power play worked well this afternoon.” One aspect of the game that got the head coaches attention was discipline. “We took too many bad penalties. We could have prevented those four penalties.” Roy also had words for his starting goaltender, Jean-Philippe Gagnon. When answering a reporters question about the teams penalty killing unit, the Remparts head coach didn’t miss the opportunity to underline Gagnon’s performance in front of his net. “Yes, our guys on the penalty killing did a very good job, but the one who did a great job was Gagnon. He was fantastic today. He wasn’t happy about our game in Rimouski the other night, but this afternoon he came back with a great performance. On the PK, your best player is often your netminder; he made great saves in key moments keeping us in the game.” *NOTES – Quebec next game will be Friday night at home against the Shawinigan Cataractes. On Friday Quebec lost in overtime in Rimouski, 4-3. On Friday September 11, the Remparts opened their 2009-10 season by visiting the Oceanic in Rimouski. It was a goal 50 seconds into the overtime by Emanuel Boudreau that turned things in favor of the home team. Quebec led 3-2 with less than one minute to go in the third period. The Oceanic tied the game at 3-3 with a power play goal by Felix Lefrancois, his second of the night, at 18:17 beating Jean-Philippe Gagnon to force overtime. Contact the author at: serge.poulin@prohockeynews.com
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