QUEBEC CITY P.Q. — In an exciting game 7, in front of 13,861 happy fans, the Quebec Remparts won 3-0, eliminating Cape Breton over seven hard fought battles. After trailing 0-2 and 3- 2 in the series, Quebec never gave up and proved that everything is possible when everyone pulls in same direction. When you look back at the series and try to find out how the Remparts came out on top in the series after trailing twice, and after having their backs against the wall to successfully come from behind and win the series. One name and one name only can explain the final result. That name is Charles Lavigne, the veteran netminder who shutout Cape Breton’s offense in the last 137 minutes of the series. That means he shut out Cape Breton over two games and last 17 minutes of game five. Lavigne is the first to give credit to his teammates. “I need to do my part in this series,” said Lavigne after the game. “Patrick (Roy) and I talked before Game 3 because I wasn’t helping the team. I was harmful to the team. Patrick sat with me and said to approach each game as if it’s an overtime period. As soon as I gave up a goal, I have to start all over again.” Right after his discussion with Roy, Lavigne played with much more confidence. He made 16 saves out of 17 shots against him in Game 3, first in Cape Breton frustrating Screaming Eagle offense playing key roles in each of first two games in Cape Breton. When he was asked how much confidence it might be for the team in coming from behind twice, Lavigne was the first to recognize the importance of coming back in the series. “That shows that we have lots of character, we can believe in ourselves,” revealed the 20 year old netminder. “That is the key for us now, we believe in our ability to win games.” When talking about the 137 minutes without giving any goal to their opponent, Lavigne was the first to give credit to his teammates. “I have to give credit to players who played in front of me. In the last two games I got some good shots, but maybe not as much as in Cape Breton. I was able to make the first save, and when I gave up a rebound, my teammates were there to take care of it.” The Quebec coach gave credit to all his players for the intensity they showed, not only in the last game of the whole series. “I’m extremely proud of my players,” Roy said during his post game press conference. “I think when we were behind in the series 0-2, the players never let go. Sure it took an extraordinary performance of our goaltender, but he is an important player on our team, and he played extremely well for us. He kept us alive and that gave the result we have tonight.” “Overall I think we played very well. It’s the kind of performance we should give our goaltender. He made the saves when he had to. Our power play did several good things. For sure, we would like to have much traffic in front of their goalie. Again overall I’m very happy about the way we played.” “You trail 0-2 and you go to play the next three games in their building. You really worked hard to come back in this series it hadn’t been a good scenario if we had lose that game.” When talking about the turning point in the series, the Quebec coach has this to say. “The turning point in this series is Charles Lavigne. It was Lavingne who kept us in this series. He was exceptional yesterday, and he has been very good tonight. For me he was the key player for us in the series.” Quebec drew first blood in Game 7. A lost puck by Cape Breton center Nick MacNeil in his defensive zone led to Quebec’s first goal by Mikhail Stefanovich with only 1:51 gone in the opening period. Best offensive opportunities for Cape Breton in first period came during their first power play opportunity (a penalty to Kevin Marshall (slashing 3:36)), but like the night before, Lavigne answered by making save after save in frustrating the visitors. Quebec also got two chances on their power play following penalties to Michael Stinziani (holding 9:21) and to Joey Haddad (tripping 18:48), but Roy was there to prevent further damage for his teammates, keeping the score 1-0 after twenty minutes. Quebec continued to play a solid game in the second period, taking every chance they get to shot on the opponents goaltender. They finally saw one get behind Roy with less than five minutes remaining. Veteran left winger Marc-Olivier Vallerand took a rebound shot from Kevin Marshall to beat the Screaming Eagles netminder at 14:16 of the second to lead 2-0 after two periods. Benjamin Breault sealed Cape Breton‘s fate with an empty net goal at 19:00 minutes of final period before the happy crowd in the building who celebrated the victory of their favorite team. They will enjoy their victory before going back to prepare for their next series against the Shawinigan Cataractes. On the other side, Cape Breton Head Coach Mario Durocher gave credit to the winning team. “We have to give credit to the Remparts, Lavigne has been good, but I would like to give credit to Tessier (Kelsey) who played very well for them. On our side, the loss of Slaney (Robert) who had a triple fracture of his jaw and Chouinard (Nicolas) hurt us really bad. As I said, the loss of Chouinard in third game really hurt us, if we won the third game, they were in deep trouble.” “We have to give credit to them, they played a good game in our home and here they were perfect. They didn’t allow a goal. It’s tough to win when you can’t score a goal.” With the Eagles 4 of 39 on the power play, you can’t expect to win games, much less a series when the power play isn’t efficient. “Effectively?” answered Durocher. “Tonight we were really bad, but in the other games in the series we have had our chances, but we weren’t able to put it in.” said the Screaming Eagles head coach. Shots on net: Cape Breton 25, Quebec 28 Power play: Cape Breton 0-4, Quebec 0-5 Three stars of the game: 1 Charles Lavigne (Que.) 2 Kelsey Tessier (Que.) 3 Guillaume Monast (Que.) Next opponent: Shawinigan. Game 1 is on Friday, and Game 2 on Saturday Contact the author at: serge.poulin@prohockeynews.com
