QUEBEC CITY, P.Q. — With three goals and three assists, right winger John Audy-Marchessault led his team to a 12-2 win over the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies on Friday night. On Saturday night, different opponent, different kind of game, but still winning at the end, the Remparts won 4-1 over the Halifax Mooseheads.
Marchessault launched the Quebec offense with the first of two goals midway in the first period in Friday night’s game. The second goal came at 18:38. In between, veteran center Joel Champagne (1g-3a) scored the Remparts’ second goal at 15:16. Olivier Hinse completed the first period scoring with Quebec’s fourth goal with 7.4 seconds remaining in the period.
The former center who was asked to play right wing with Champagne and Tomas Filippi (2g-1a) had another great night with 7 points against the Lewiston MAINEiacs one week ago.
“We came out strong in the first period, we expected to see the other team come out strong, they were pretty intense and played very well in first ten minutes of first period,” said Marchessault after the game. “I’m not too excited about my own performance, I just have to continue to work hard and good things will happen.”
Quebec scored four goals on 14 shots in the first. They came back with five more goals on 13 shots in the second.
Marchessault with his third of the night 1:25, Fillipi with first of two in the game 4:02 into second frame built a 6-0 lead to Quebec before Rouyn-Noranda broke the ice with their first goal of the game at 5:00 in the second.
Rookie Kyle Campbell with his first in the QMJHL 7:20, defenseman Vincent Barnard 10:57 and Mirko Hoefflin also with his first in QMJHL since his return from the Chicago Black Hawks training camp 18:31 completed the offense in the middle frame.
The Remparts adds three other goals on 10 shots in third period. Filippi with his second of the night at 1:25, defenseman Martin Lefebvre and rookie Hoefflin also with his second of the game 1:29 remaining in the game complete the scoring for Quebec.
“I have to use my strength on the line,” said the veteran center Champagne about a comment made by his teammates Marchessault. “I didn’t fix any goal coming here, I just came here to play hockey. I didn’t want to check the result, just focusing on the task I have to do. When you work hard result will come.”
With a 10-1 lead after Quebec added two goals, the second in the game by Filippi at 1:25 into the third. A penalty to Quebec defenseman Mikael Tam led to Rouyn-Noranda second goal in the game score by Junior Harris 5:21. Quebec defenseman Martin Lefebvre 14:51 and Hoefflin with his second of the game 18:41 scored the last two goals in the game.
Remparts head coach Patrick Roy was pleased about his team effort for the night.
“Sure I really like the way we played, we had good practice all week. We had great discussion on the ice last Tuesday and starting from there players upheld their plays in the practice and they transferred it on the ice. Players played very well to begins the game; they worked very hard, that’s what I told them. When team works hard, the other team has some tendency to let it go and what didn’t help the Huskies is their goaltending performance,” said Roy.
“What I like the most about our players is their receptivity, we talk and they listen, they want to go far and do what we told them,” added Roy. “After second period we go in locker room it’s easy to take bad attitude we look the score and say buff. What we don’t like this year is to take it easy when we look the result but instead they way we play. If we do that even if we won one night but we didn’t play well we are able to make the adjustment.”
The Remparts ended the night with two goals scored on four power play opportunities compared to 1-5 for Royn-Noranda.
On Saturday, the Halifax Mooseheads were the first team to break the ice 10:40 into the first period when Andrew Ryan beat the Quebec netminder with a screened wrist shot that passed Louis Domingue.
Frederick Roy, with his first of two goals for the night, replied four minutes forty seconds later to tie the score. Both teams returned to their locker rooms with the score 1-1.
Talking about his performance, Roy’s son gave credit to his teammates for his success.
“It’s really a team effort. Bourque (Ryan) played very well, Hoefflin (Mirko) is very good player together we form a good line. I think it gave a good idea of what kind of team we are. We knew that even if we win 12-2 one night, everything can happen the next game.”
Answering a question about his first goal the one that tied the game Roy said, “The puck went on the other side if Bourque didn’t win his battle in the corner I didn’t scored. So yes I shot the puck top corner but you have to give credit to Bourque.”
Mathieu Lavalle, another rookie on the team, got the distinction of scoring the second goal the one that became the game winning goal in second period at 12:31. He beat Mosseheads goaltender Mathieu Corbeil between his pads with a backhanded shot.
“Scoring my first goal here in Quebec, a good fight (he was involved in fight with Sawyer Hannay in first period) it’s a dream I can’t ask for better things to happen,” said the young rookie after the game. “You often heard players talk about the chemistry in the team, it’s unbelievable how everyone work hard on the team everybody support each other and gave good advice.”
“I went in the corner and it took a couple of seconds before I realized I had scored,” said the right winger about his goal.
The line of Joel Champagne with John Audy-Marchessault and Tomas Filippi had been kept out of the scoring sheet until third period. Filippi scored Quebec’s third goal in the game with only 0:57 seconds gone in the third period, before Roy completed the scoring for Quebec with an empty net goal at 18:16.
Bourque who just came back the night before from New York Rangers training camp has been really impress how the guys were focus on the game in Quebec.
“I just came back around six o’clock last night and I was just impress how focus the guys were, I mean it’s a complete transition from last year and I think one of our best quality is our work ethic and how close we are, we are. The focus is just incredible hopefully we are keeping going and keep playing to our best ability.”
“We played very well,” said coach Roy answering a question from a reporter at the post game press conference. “It might be boring for some because we didn’t score twelve goals tonight but we have to admit the goaltender on the other side kept his team in the game making several key saves. For me it’s the main reason why the game remained close. We didn’t give them any chances, our defensemen were very solid, we won battle along the board and that’s the type of hockey we have to play.”
The team will get two days off before going back to the ice practicing. The team will go on the road playing their next in Cape Breton against the Screaming Eagles on October 1 and play the Moncton Wildcats on October 3.
Quebec will come back in front of their fans on October 8 facing the Baie-Comeau Drakkar.
Contact the author at: serge.poulin@prohockeynews.com
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