QUEBEC CITY P.Q.— With victories against Cape Breton (2-1), Halifax (4-2) and a loss (6-4) against Saint John Sea Dogs, the Remparts came back winning four out of six available points against team that were tough to play against in their own building.
Last Tuesday when the team left for three games in four nights against the Atlantic division, Remparts’ head coach Patrick Roy looked forward the challenge facing his players.
Quebec played an almost perfect game against the Screaming Eagles on Thursday night winning 2-1 thanks to the eleventh goal of the season by John-Audy Marchessault (16:55) of second period giving a 2-0 lead following first period goal scored on a power play by Marc-Olivier Vallerand. Luke Adam was the only Screaming Eagles player to score on Cape Breton goal preventing Quebec goalie shutout.
The game against Cape Breton marked the return of Quebec’s number one goaltender Peter Dalmas who felt much better and hoping not to go under the scalpel for hip issues. Dalmas faced 27 shots making 26 saves.
Roy wanted to see his team play sixty minute of intense hockey, he wanted his players to prove they can play with character, discipline and pay attention to little details. That’s exactly what the players did, offering to their head coach the kind of game Roy look for since the season began.
“That’s exactly the kind of performance we want to see from our players against a big team,” said Remparts coach Patrick Roy to Quebec newspaper representative after the game. “We have had great scoring chances their goalkeeper made great saves. Our four lines played very well our defensive were excellent and Dalmas made big saves when it counted.”
“What I liked the most was when Cape Breton scored at the end of second period cutting our lead to 2-1 and the Screaming Eagles came out in third period playing strong hockey, we were able to maintain our rhythm and break their in middle of last period.”
In Halifax, Quebec came out with a 4-2 win against the worst team in the QMJHL. Quebec took the lead with only 4:31 gone into the first period when Ryan Bourque completed great effort by Dmitry Krugryshev. Carl Gelinas tied the score at one goal-a-piece with less than a minute left in the opening period.
The Remparts opened the gate offensively scoring the next three goals with only one in second period, a power play goal, scored by John-A-Marchessault his 12th of the year at 12:20.
Quebec came back in the third period scoring the next two in four minutes in the middle of last period. Mikhail Stefanovich (10:04) and Danick Paquette (13:59) gave a 4-1 lead to visiting team. Jessyko Bernard (15:32) was the last Mosseheads forward to beat Jean-Philippe Gagnon who was in goal defending the net for Quebec. Patrick Roy didn’t want to send Dalmas in for a second game preferring to keep his number one goaltender for Sunday afternoon important game against Saint John.
After facing the worst team in the QMJHL Quebec had to face off against the best in the league in Saint John, the Sea Dogs had an impressive 16-game winning streak. All elements were there for the Quebec team to play their best hockey.
Even if the Remparts had offered great performance it wasn’t enough to stop the Sea Dogs winning streak. Saint John won 6-4 over Quebec adding a 17th consecutive win in front of their fans.
Saint John’s line of Nicholas Petersen (2-2), Mike Hoffman (3goals) and Stanislav Galiev (0-2) run the show in front of 4,710 fans in the Harbour Station Arena.
Quebec was the first to open the scoring on a power play when Mikhail Stefanovich beat Sea Dogs goalie Marc-Antoine Gelinas with only 3:01 gone in the opening period. Saint John tied the game 4:05 seconds later on Mike Hoffman first of the night (7:06) with his 15th of the year. Steven Anthony gave the lead to Saint John 1:01 later with a man advantage.
Quebec defenseman Mikael Tam brought both teams back to square one with Quebec second goals of the night also with a man advantage at 13:25. But Saint John came right back with first of the night by Petersen at 14:15 and Hoffman second in the game 17 seconds later to give a two goal leads to home team 4-2.
Marc-Olivier Vallerand kept Remparts fans hope alive cutting Saint John lead in half with Quebec third goal of the game completing the work of Kugryshev and Kelsey Tessier at 7:04. The Sea Dogs regained their two goals lead when Hoffman completed his hat trick at 8:09.
Ryan Bourque with Quebec fourth goals in the game reduced Saint John lead to only one goal keeping his team chance to tie the score before the end of the third. Roy decided to pull his netminder Dalmas who was back in net sending an extra forward in hope to tie the game an forcing the overtime, but unfortunately for Quebec Petersen scored his second of the night in an empty net at 19:31 for Sea Dogs 17th consecutive wins.
Peter Dalmas faced 45 shots making 39 saves Marc-Antoine Gelinas faced 25 shots making 21 saves. Remparts lose defenseman Alexandre Neron to shoulder injury forcing Patrick Roy to play the game mostly with five defensemen.
Next Quebec game will be in Quebec on December 5th against Val-D’or Foreurs.
Contact the author at: serge.poulin@prohockeynews.com
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