Quebec wins by shut out over Victoriaville

QUEBEC CITY, P.Q. — If someone came to you before the regular season began and told you that Quebec would rank first overall after their first 12 games, you would probably didn’t take them too seriously. But that’s the reality after Quebec won 3-0 over the Victoriaville Tigres on Thursday night.
 
“Incredible,” has been the first word pronounced by Remparts head coach Patrick Roy in his post game press conference. “Honestly, I’m really proud of my players,” Roy said. “It has been a really tough part of schedule we faced off against very good teams and tonight we played a pretty good team. Without playing our best hockey, I found that our executions weren’t up to what it was supposed to be, I found that we were little bit slow in our decision making.”
 
“I felt that our guys would like to give us more but I felt our guys were little bit tired,” Roy continued. “Honestly, the good news is, we will have a week off before our next game, so it would be good. It is very well worth it because we offered great performances in important moment in this sequence.”  
 
Quebec came out strong breaking the ice in the opening period with the first two goals in 7:45. Remparts defenseman Owen Werthner got the first goal with only 20 seconds gone in the period, tipping the puck in following a perfect pass from Martin Lefebvre.
 
Victoriaville goaltender David Honzik, who had been criticized by his coach Yannick Jean before the game in one of the main Quebec newspaper ( Journal de Quebec ) for not tending the Tigres net the way he should, saw veteran Quebec left winger Frederick Roy, beating him on a breakaway with a shot that went top corner at 7:45.
 
“When I saw the way we came out I said wow, we really take off where we left off in our last game,” Quebec‘s head coach said, referring to his teams first two goals of the game. “The fact we took the lead by two – we didn’t have had to keep the pressure on them. I mentioned to them, after the game, that I’m happy we won the game, but I know we can do better than that. We can be faster in our execution for sure.”
 
Quebec goaltender Louis Domingue has been solid stopping all 27 Victoriaville shots on goal. The Phoenix Coyotes’ fifth round pick (138th overall in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft) was solid, especially at the end of first period against the Tigres combination of Yannick Gourde and Philippe Maillet stealing Tigres center with a left pad save.
 
“It was a collective effort,” Domingue answered when asked to comment his performance against one of the best offense in the league. “We work very well since the season began, we focus on the day by day, and we have a great work ethic as a team when we came to the arena. We didn’t play our best game but we found a way to win. It was the key tonight.”
 
If the first period provided an opportunity for goaltenders on each side to demonstrate their ability to make great saves, the second period was more of a defensive battle, where neither team was able to find good scoring chances. Quebec shot just three times on Honzik; Domingue only saw two shots.
 
“You have to stay in the game,” Domingue added, referring to the fact he received only two shots on goal in the middle frame. “You never know when they can get a scoring opportunity. It’s a good sign when you can stay alert we successfully kept our concentration and be ready for the third period.”
 
Victoriaville’s coach didn’t seem too disappointed after the game. For him, his team missed some executions on Quebec‘s first two goals and they opened the door to their opponent.
 
“Not necessarily,” answered Jean when he was asked if his team had been too fancy on Quebec first two goals. “We missed some executions, we opened the door to them. We gave them two goals on missed defensive assignment we didn’t generate much offense. We have to be more dangerous with the kind of talent we have.”
 
Quebec came back, sealing their victory with their third goal when Nick Sorensen completed the effort from Frederick Roy and Mikhail Grigorenko.
Quebec will be back in action next Thursday with the first of three games in four nights in the Maratimes facing the Acadie-Bathurst Titans. 
 
Two other games were on schedule in QMJHL on Thursday night:
Drummondville 5 vs. Cape Breton 1
Blainville-Boisbriand 3 vs. Halifax 5
 
Contact the author at: serge.poulin@prohockeynews.com