Quebec wins 5-2 over Chicoutimi

QUEBEC CITY, PQ — You could feel the electricity going into le Colisee Pepsi on Wednesday night for the first confrontation between Patrick Roy and Guy Carboneau. Even as both coaches tried to deflect the attention to their respective players, fans in the building enjoyed the game that ended with a Quebec victory.
 

The game began with both teams trading goals with their power play units on the ice. Quebec forward Ryan Bourque was the first to visit the penalty box for hooking with only 4:15 gone in the opening period.
 
Chicoutimi right winger Guillaume Asselin didn’t miss an excellent opportunity when he just had to tip in a pass coming from the stick of Guillaume Cloutier at 5:59.
 
Quebec center Joel Champagne replied with a man advantage during a penalty to Chicoutimi forward Emrik Guillemette who also had been sent to the box for hooking at 7:42. Champagne took a rebound near the goal crease following Mirko Hoefflin’s shot and beat one of the best if not the best goalie in the QMJHL between Christopher Gibson’s pads at 9:18.
 
But before the first period ended, Quebec took the lead for the first time in the game. The defensive quartet of Vincent Barnard, Mikael Tam, Alex Wall, and Martin Lefebvre has scored goals at critical times since the beginning of the season.
 
In Wednesday night’s game, three of Quebec five goals scored came from defensemen. The first one who brought his offensive contribution against the Sagueneens was rookie defenseman Ryan Culkin who completed a tic-tac-toe play for his sixth goal of the year with less than three minutes remaining to the opening period.
 
Chicoutimi continues to play great in second period but still trailed after forty minutes 3-2. Trailing by one (2-1) in the beginning of the second period Chicoutimi saw two of players being penalized in span of 18 seconds. First Alexandre Lavoie saw referee Nicolas Dutil indicating to Sagueneens forward the penalty box for hooking at 4:19. And 18 seconds later Nicolas Therrien took the same direction for a check from behind at 4:37.
 
Alexandre Roy blocked a shot from Quebec defenseman Barnard and brought Chicoutimi back in the game tying the score 2-2 beating Quebec goaltender Louis Domingue on perfect breakaway at 5:15.
 
But like they did in the first period when they saw Chicoutimi takes a 1-0 lead Quebec replied 33 seconds later with another power play goal still being on a five-on-three power play.
 
Tomas Filippi scored what became the game winning goal when he pushed the puck in an open net after getting great pass from Alexandre Grenier 5:48 into the second period.
 
Chicoutimi lost one of its key players with only 31 seconds gone in the third period when Guillaume Asselin has been tossed out of the game after arguing with referee.
 
Quebec came back in third periods adding two goals to seal Chcoutimi’s fate for the night. Vincent Barnard wristed a shot beating Gibson on his stick side 1:59 into third period.
 
Quebec captain Mikael Tam ended Remparts offense for the night with his 19^th of the year 3:20 later.
 
The captain seemed happy to come out with the win but would like to see the team play better, “Yes we are happy to win the game, but we could have played much better,” Tam said.
 
“We won 5-2 but we have lots of things that we could have done much better. We didn’t come out with the same intensity as we did in our last two games in Val-d’Or and Drummondville,” Tam added. “Domingue made several key saves for us, the puck seems to bounce our way, and we had two lucky goals tonight. It’s fun to win the game tonight but we didn’t begin the game the way we would like to.”
 
For Chicoutimi head Coach Guy Carboneau, his team played forty minutes.
 
“We didn’t play a bad game, we made little mistakes but with the hands and great scorer they have they took advantage of it,” Carboneau said after the match.
 
For Patrick Roy, his team finds a way to win. “I have one thing I’m happy for, we found a way to win, but I know one thing we can play better than we did tonight.”
 
“For people who saw the games in Val-d’Or and Drummondville we played with much more intensity, we won our one-on-one battle along the board. Tonight, I’m happy to win but I would appreciate to see us play better. If I look our last seven games at home we missed some consistency we have some difficulty to maintain our intensity from the get go until the end of the game, our record is 3 wins 4 loses, so I would like to find a way to play better at home.”
 
Quebec will be back in front of their fans Friday March 11 against the Victoriaville Tigres before ending their home portion of their schedule on upcoming Sunday March 13 Shawinigan Cataractes.
 
Other Games in the QMJHL
Prince Edwards Island 4 vs. Halifax 3 (shootout)
Val-d’Or 3 vs. Baie-Comeau 4
    Contact the author at: serge.poulin@prohockeynews.com