QUEBEC CITY P.Q.—Another solid performance by Quebec netminder Charles Lavigne lead Quebec to a pivotal win Game 4 of the best-of-seven in Cape Breton to tie the series at 2-2. 
The 4,415 fans who came in Wednesday night game hoping Game 4 would turn in favor of their favorite team. Unfortunately for them, they saw another strong performance by the opposing goaltender preventing Cape Breton of their third win in the series. Both teams won their respective games in the other teams building. The question now is, witch team will be the first to win in their own building? Following Tuesday nights game in Cape Breton, Head Coach Patrick Roy made some comments about the work of the referees in Wednesday mornings edition of the Cape Breton Post Daily newspaper. “I’m extremely embarrassed by our league. The officiating team with three out of four hailing from Maritimes did everything necessary to see the Screaming Eagles win this game and that’s not correct.” We don’t know if Roy’s comments had any influence on the job tonight referees did, but the first penalty went to Cape Breton’s Stephen Horyl (29 seconds into the 1st period) but it didn’t have any effect since the Screaming Eagles killed off the penalty, and even had the better scoring chance when Nick MacNeil got the puck following a defensive mistake by Marc-Olivier Vallerand who lost the puck in an attempted pass to a teammate in the neutral zone. With one man in penalty box for Quebec (Mikael Tam, 2:36), Lavigne made some really good saves against Joey Haddad to set the tone for the night. Quebec opened the scoring when David Gilbert tipped a shot from Remparts defenseman Alexandre Neron’s wrist shot, giving Screaming Eagles netminder Olivier Roy at 14:57 no chance to stop the puck. Cape Breton’s tying goal came from the stick of Taylor McDougall, completing a great effort from Mathieu Brodeur and Mickael Stinziani at 2:57 in the second period. Quebec scored the next three goals to take what appeared to the Screaming Eagles Head Coach Mario Durocher as “the pivotal game 4.” Mathieu Loisel took his own rebound and slid the puck between Roy’s pads at 5:54 for Quebec’s second goal of the game. Kelsey Tessier, with his sixth of the series, went in against on Roy, beating Roy with a move from right to left, putting the puck behind Roy, and lit the lamp for third Quebec goal at 9:12. Quebec add their fourth goal when Mikhail Stefanovich scored his seventh of the playoffs, completing a great play from Dmitry Kugryshev and Samuel Groulx at 8:29 of the third period. Joey Haddad scored for Cape Breton, cutting the Remparts lead to two goals with his seventh of the series at 11:40. But a five minute penalty to Marco Desveau of Cape Breton for hitting from behind on Quebec defenseman Mikael Tam, killed any chance for Durocher’s team from a come-from-behind attempt. A five-on-three man advantage to Quebec led to the Remparts fifth goal when Marc-Olivier Vallerand’s one timer beat Roy at 18:34, sealing Quebec second victory in the best-of-seven quarterfinal. The Three stars of the game: 1- Charles Lavigne (Que.), 2- Samuel Groulx (Que.), 3- Chris Culligan (C.B.). Power play: Quebec 2-8, Cape Breton 0-7. The next game in the series will be this Friday, also in Cape Breton, before both teams come back to Quebec to play game six. In other QMJHL action: Gatineau Olympiques 2 vs. Shawinigan Cataractes 4 Shawinigan leads the series 3-1 Drummondville Voltigeurs 5 vs. Montreal Junior 3 Drummondville wins the series 4-0 (their second straight sweep of the playoffs) Moncton Wildcats 2 vs. Rimouski Oceanics 4 Rimouski leads the series 3-1 Contact the author at: serge.poulin@prohockeynews.com
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