QUEBEC CITY, P.Q. — In a battle of goaltenders, Louis Domingue got the best of Christopher Gibson at the end. John Audy-Marchessault scored the only goal in the game to give to his team the precious two points in the standings.
Chicoutimi came into Quebec winning only two games in their last twelve but one of their victories was against Drummondville on October 27 defeating the Voltigeurs by the score of 3-2.
Coming to Quebec to face your archrival you must find a way to play your best hockey not to lose by a wide margin.
That’s what the Sagueneens did in the opening period getting two good scoring chances in first four shots ending the first period with three good scoring chances on six shots on goal. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough for Richard Martel’s team to break the ice because the Quebec netminder answered with key saves each time.
“The third period was the story of Louis Domingue, he has been very good because we put lots of pressure around his net,” Chicoutimi head coach Martel said answering a question about his team’s best moments in the game.
“We did pretty well defensively against one of, if not the best offense, in the league. We didn’t have lots of natural scorer, when you have an establish guy who already scored 30 goals the preceding year you know the guy will be a possible 40 goals for you the next year, but we don’t have any kind of guy like that with us this year. Here in Quebec you already have Marchessault, you also have Joel Champagne, who last year almost got 40 goals. Our best scorer on the ice for us tonight was Billy Lacasse with 22, Guillaume Asselin with 19 last year and Lavoie with 12 goals, the others players got 9, 7 and 3 goals respectively. But we played good hockey. We have to say the third period belong to Domingue because we should have scored at least one goal,” Martel added.
The first period ended scoreless, Quebec ended with five good scoring chances on eight shots on goal.
Quebec came out in second period playing much better in gaining the territorial advantage and putting pressure in offensive zone but like the Quebec goaltender did in first period, Gibson did the same for Chicoutimi making lots of good saves keeping the score 0-0 until 17:40 of the second frame.
John Audy Marchessault took a rebound shot from Joel Champagne and pushed the puck behind Chicoutimi netminder beating Gibson with a backhanded shot low on his blocker side. Kyle Campbell and Frederick Roy just missed excellent scoring chances minutes preceding the only goal in the game.
“It’s another great game for us,” Domingue said when he talked about the number of shots he face overall (19) in the game. “When you trailed by one in the third period they gave all they had trying to score, but we as a team successfully close the door lots of guys block shots around the net tonight helping me to keep the score the way it was. It’s always satisfactory to win by shutout but at the end we won, it’s always the two points in the standing that count the most. It surely will be an important two points later in the season,” Domingue said referring to the overall game.
The author of the lone goal, Marchessault agreed, saying that Chicoutimi came to play a tight game in Quebec.
“Chicoutimi always played thigh game; they waited for us with four guys at the blue line forcing us to dump the puck in so it’s up to us to use our speed to put lots of pressure on them. But tonight we had some problem with that. The truth tonight is Chicoutimi played very well, they might not get good offensive production, Louis (Domingue) made lots of good saves for us we could dedicated this victory to him tonight,” Marchessault said.
For his part, Quebec head coach Patrick Roy was the first to recognize that it wasn’t the best game.
“It wasn’t a good game for the fans in the stand but Chicoutimi did what they had to do, four players on the blue line closed the slot in front of the net and they also have an very good goaltender so it’s normal to play that kind of style,” Roy commented after the final horn.
“We would like to play more of an open game but tonight they did what they had to do but it wasn’t as interesting as it should for the spectacle. On the other hand it won’t be honest for me to say that I like the kind of game we played. Not because we didn’t work but we didn’t play the kind of game we used to play. What I tried to say is Chicoutimi played very thigh game in front of their net I would like to see us use more shots from the blue line, we forced some play that it wasn’t there we tried too much individual play, trying to get in the zone. That’s the kind of play I don’t like to see from our part,” Roy added.
Shots on goals: Chicoutimi 19, Quebec 22
Power play: Chicoutimi 0-2 Quebec 0-1
Next Quebec game will be on the road this Sunday October 31 against the Baie-Comeau Drakkar. Next home game will be on next Friday November 6 against the Montreal Junior.
Contact the author at: serge.poulin@prohockeynews.com
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