Quebec successfully tame the wild beast

QUEBEC CITY, P.Q. — Having lost their first two meetings against the

Drummondville Voltigeurs everything was in place for Quebec in the first of back-to-back confrontations to try to tame their wild beast. Led offensively by veteran forward Frederick Roy (2 goals 3 assist) and rookie Anthony Duclair (2 goals 2 assists) Quebec defeated Drummondville 7-3.
 
“We worked hard, we worked together,” Roy said in deflecting credit to his teammates.
 
“Duclair played incredible, “Grigo” (Mikhail Grigorenko) also played very well maybe he didn’t have as many points as other night but he did other things giving the chance to Duclair to capitalize.”
 
Asked about his line’s chemistry the veteran forward talked about their work together.
 
“We work together we have chemistry together. When you work hard good things happen that’s what we did together we didn’t asked questions. Playoff is near so it’s important to step our game a notch and that’s what we did tonight,” Roy said.
 
Referring to the fact Quebec hadn’t win against the Voltigeurs this season Roy said, “We beat them tonight we have a point to prove. We want to finish second overall we still believe it but on the other hand you have to look at the other options. We should meet them or Gatineau so our last games will be key ones for us. If we have to face one of these teams they have to know it won’t be easy.”
 
Adam Erne opened the scoring at even strength taking a rebound shot from the blue line by Quebec defenseman Mikael Tam. Erne just had to push the puck under Dominic Graham at 9:36.
 
Gabriel Desjardins gave Quebec a 2-0 lead on their second chance with a man advantage, taking a shot from right faceoff circle giving no chance to Drummondville netminder 36 seconds later.
 
Drummondville cut Quebec lead in half with Eric Sylvergard’s 13^th of the year. Coming out from behind Quebec goal the Voltigeurs center beat Francois Brassard with a wraparound goal.
 
Leading 2-1 after one period of play Quebec came back in second adding two more goals taking a commanding 4-1 lead midway through second period. First, Roy’s wrist shot from the left face of circle left no chance to Drummondville goalie 5:04 into the period.
 
A give and go play between Roy and defenseman Martin Lefebvre ended with the Quebec defenseman’s 12^th goal of the season giving a 4-1 lead to Quebec 3:20 later.
 
But before the period ended Drummondville right winger Andre Bouvet-Morrissette surprise Quebec netminder with a one timer reducing Remparts lead to two goals at 10:49.
 
Already registering an assist on Quebec’s third goal, 16-year-old rookie Duclair scored first of two goals in the third period at 2:01 completing a great play by Grigorenko and defenseman Marc-Antoine Carrier. As they did in two previous occasions, in the game Drummondville came back scoring their third goal by Bouvet-Morrissette with a man advantage at 3:37. It was Bouvet-Morrissette’s second of the match.
 
But Duclair, with his 30^th of the year, and Roy also his second of the night killed any hope of visiting team to tie the game.
 
For his part the Voltigeurs head coach, Mario Duhamel, wasn’t happy about his team’s performance.
 
“If you look the game we were in that game 75 percent of the time but the other 25 percent seemed to kill us, individual errors cost us heavily. When you play against a big line like they have on the other side, (two scorers in first five overall) you can’t have turnover against us like we had, it cost us a lot in the game. For the rest of the game we create great momentum we have had good scoring opportunities, defensively we get better as the game went on. But you can’t give turnovers against them the way we did tonight.”
 
For Quebec head coach Patrick Roy it was the opposite. Roy was satisfied of his team effort.
 
“Absolutely, I like what I saw, but it’s only in second period where I found we were undisciplined we took unnecessary penalties but overall I was very happy.”
 
Asked if Duclair is Quebec best player in last two or three weeks the coach recognized that Duclair has played big hockey lately.
 
“ For sure he play big hockey he used his speed greatly, I have to admit that on our third goal he made a very good pass to Frederick (Roy), he might say that he saw it, but it’s a type of play you seen from exceptional player.”
 
On his son’s performance, Roy added, “I told him he should have had a better beginning of the regular season, you could challenge Gourde (Yanni) as points leader in the QMJHL I’m happy for him because he works very hard, he sets the example each time he steps on the ice. He wasn’t just an excellent leader in the locker room but on the ice too.”
 
Quebec next game will be in Drummondville this Friday ending the weekend in Gatineau on Sunday afternoon.
 
Three other games were on QMJHL schedule on Wednesday
Acadie-Bathurst 0 vs. Halifax 7
Blainville-Boisbriand 4 vs. Victoriaville 3 (shootout)
Rimouski 3 vs. Chicoutimi 5
 
Contact the author at: serge.poulin@prohockeynews.com