QUEBEC CITY P.Q. — The experts have made their series analysis, the fans have mad their predictions, now it’s time for the players to play the game. Two goals in 18 seconds at the beginning of the second period made the difference in Victoriaville favor in winning Game One 4-1 Friday night in Quebec. The Tigres drew first blood when Trevor McIsaac completed a great play from Joel Chouinard and Philip-Michael Devos with the man advantage 2:41 into the opening period. Quebec replied with a power play goal just 59 seconds later when Captain Marc-Olivier Vallerand scored Quebec’s first goal of the game. The Remparts thought they had scored their second goal of the game but referee Nicolas Dutil disallowed a goal due to a hand pass.
Philippe Maillet (2:26) and Guillaume Goulet (2:44) scored the Tigres goals to put Victoriaville up 3-1 and added a fourth goal later in period when Tomas Kubalik beat Quebec netminder Louis Domingue at 16:19.
The two goals that at the beginning of the period were clearly the key moment of the game for the Tigres head coach. “The two goals to begin the second period was a turning point in the game. The referee’s decision to disallow the Quebec goal was another key moment for us.” “They put lots of circulations in front of me but they didn’t shoots a lot,” said Victoriaville goaltender Kevin Poulin. “They put a lot of traffic in front of me tonight and that is what they will try all series long. They will rush the net and try quality shots. I ‘m pretty sure they will come out much better tomorrow.”
On the Quebec side of the ice, Remparts head coach Patrick Roy gave is take on the game.
“Overall we didn’t play a bad game. We did good things and we didn’t give too many scoring chances. Defensively we did some good things but we have to correct some details. Looking at the video I think we could make adjustment on three of the four goals we gave up tonight. Offensively we certainly will have to do a better job.”
Game two will be tomorrow (Saturday) 19:00 at le Colisee of Quebec.
Elsewhere in the QMJHL
Gatineau Olympiques vs. Saint John Sea Dogs The Sea Dogs won Game One 7-4 over the Olympques. Stanislav Galiev (2-3), Michael Kirkpatrick (2-1) was the offensive leaders in Saint John first victory. Nicholas Pard, Mike Hoffman and Tomas Jurco completed the scoring for the Sea Dogs.
Adam Janosik, Mittchel Porowsky, Hubert Labrie and Benjamin Laliberte scored for Gatineau. Saint John leads 1-0 with Game Two in Saint John on Saturday.
Moncton Wildcats vs. Rouyn-Noranda The Wildcats won 6-1 over the Huskies to take Game One. Ted Stephens, Randy Cameron, Daniel Pettersson, Mark Barberio, Kelsey Tessier and Devon MacAusland scored for Moncton. Jeff Desjardin was the lone goal scorer for Rouyn-Noranda. Game Two will be on Saturday in Rouyn-Noranda.
Rimouski Oceanic vs. Drummondville Voltigeurs Surely the most interesting game of the night. Drummondville needed overtime to win Game One 5- 4 in overtime. Sean Couturier’s second goal of the game with only 24 seconds into overtime made the difference in the Voltigeurs favor.
Besides Couturier’s two goals Gabriel Dumont, Marc-Antoine Desnoyers and Christopher DiDominico also scored for Drummondville.
Alexandre Mallet, Petr Straka, Jacub Culek and Ryan Kavanagh replied for Rimouski. Both teams will face each other Saturday night.
Contact the author at: serge.poulin@prohockeynews.com
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