QUEBEC CITY, P.Q. — The penalty taken by Alexandre Carrier with one minute left in the third period had been successfully killed by the visitors but it wasn’t enough. As the player stepped back on the ice from the penalty box, Quebec defenseman Vincent Barnard beat Val-d’Or goaltender Francois Tremblay with a one-timer from the blueline giving Quebec their eleventh victory of the season.
“It’s an incredible feeling,” were the first words by the author of the game winning goal. “It will be one of my best souvenirs in hockey. Hearing the crowd when I scored, seeing my teammates skating toward me, I will definitely remember it all my life for sure. It’s incredible.”
Val-d’Or came to Quebec on Saturday knowing they were the only team against whom Quebec lost a point (in a shootout). The Foreurs are the second youngest team in the QMJHL behind Rouyn-Noranda Huskies and they ranked third in Tellus Western Division behind Drummondville Voltigeurs and Montreal Junior.
Val-d’Or was the first team to break the ice eighteen seconds in when Jonathan Hazen came out from the left corner winning his battle for the puck. Hazen found Shawn Morton-Boutin beating Quebec goaltender Louis Domingue to his right for the first Foreurs goal.
The visitors played very well in the first portion of first period but Quebec came back with the next two goals taking a 2-1 lead after the first twenty minutes of play. Rookie center who played right wing Axel Rioux replied with Quebec first goal in the game at 15:05. Rioux’s wrist shot from right faceoff circle beat Tremblay on the short side.
Joel Champagne scored the go ahead goal taking a loose puck in the goalmouth and pushed it behind Val-d’Or goalie 1:26 later giving the lead to Quebec.
Quebec came back in the second period scoring their third goal at 10:42 when defenseman Martin Lefebvre beat Foreurs goalie between his pads giving a two goals lead to the Remparts.
Val-d’Or didn’t have their last word of the night though in reducing Quebec lead to one goal before the siren announced the end of the second period. Alexandre Touchette saw his shot deflected on Remparts center Matthew Brown skate before slowly crossing the goal line going in at 17:15. Quebec still has the lead 3-2 after forty minutes of play. Shots on goal were 25- 17 in favor of Quebec.
The third period was very interesting with only one goal in favor of Val-d’Or. Both teams had good scoring chances but at the end only one was successful and the visiting team got the tying goal with less than six minutes left to the game. Alexandre Carrier scored Foreurs third goal forcing both teams to play in overtime.
Whether you are Val-Or fans or Quebec, some will call it a gutsy call from the referee or a bad call after the game on the post game hotline but with exactly one minute left to the third period referee Francois Fortin called a penalty to Val-d’Or forward Carrier the author of Foreurs tying goal in the third for crosschecking.
Quebec ended third period with a five-on-four power play and began the overtime with four-on-three power play but was unable to get the goal. As Carrier stepped back on the ice ending his penalty, Bernard beat Foreurs goaltender Tremblay with one-timer giving to Quebec their eleventh victories of the regular season.
Val-d’Or head coach Marc-Andre Dumond’s first comment after the game was on his player hard work and competitiveness.
“We worked very hard, our player battle constantly and compete. We have a very young group of players, the most important thing for us is to compete all the times, whatever the score or context thing that we didn’t do last Wednesday in Shawinigan but we did it tonight,” Dumond said.
“We successfully came back from two goals deficit and still compete all the game. We take one game at the time this week playing against the best team in the league, against best player in the league get the best of our player,” he added.
“It became even tougher to play and win games against good team in the league,” said Quebec head coach Patrick Roy after the game. “Val-d’Or was pumped-up after their victory at Drummondville on Friday night and they played very good game against us tonight. They began the game strongly scoring first goal in the game. After that I think we played better, in second they had good scoring chances. Teams are very well prepared to play against us so for sure, we need to continue to get better, and we need to put our focus on the way we need to play and not on the result.”
“The sequence just needed to be there as confidence and motivation as far as the rest, things will happen everyone knows at once it will happen but as late as it will come, better it will be. The points we have in the standing no one can retrieve it,” Roy said.
Next Remparts’ games will be three games in three nights beginning next Friday October 22 in Victoriaville against the Tigre. The team will be back home in front of their fans facing the Prince-Edward Island Rocket on Saturday and ended their weekend on Sunday afternoon facing the Moncton Wildcats.
Contact the author at: serge.poulin@prohockeynews.com
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