Acadie-Bathurst open semifinal on victorious note

QUEBEC CITY, P.Q. —With only four QMJHL teams left in the run to QMJHL president Cup final Acadie-Bathurst made sure they began their semifinal round on positive note winning game one 6-3 against the Victoriaville Tigres. Justin Ducharme and Jeffrey Truchon-Viel played key roles on Titans offense with two goals each. Truchon-Viel also add two assists.

After seeing their opponent score the first goal of the series, the home team replied with five unanswered goals taking a 5-1 lead in the first game of one of two QMJHL semifinal series.

Victoriaville came back with two more goals trailing by two goals but second goals in the game by Truchon-Viel last of the game in an empty net came to seal Tigres fate in first game of the QMJHL semifinal.

Victoriaville captain Felix Lauzon was the first to recognize his team did not play the team true style of play.

“Maybe we missed the focus,” was the first answered given by Victoriaville center Felix Lauzon. “One thing is sure is we didn’t play like the Tigres, the beauty of thing is it was rough and we have another game tomorrow. No we didn’t have any explanation. We are in playoff so it shouldn’t happened.”

For one, Jimmy Huntington agreed with his captain, “We didn’t play the way we used to,” Tigres center Jimmy Huntington said. “We played the Titans game, the run and gun game, there have had a slow-down of three minutes and they scored two or three goals that is what killed us.”

“I think our power play should have been better,” answered Victoriaville head coach Louis Robitaille. “We missed big scoring chances in the beginning of the game, Fitzpatrik made save with his pads on Huntigton it could have been 2-0, after that Koserenkov missed the net, the line is very thin between the win or a loss. Instead of been 2-1 it could have been 3-0. We have to be better tomorrow, that is the story,”

For Acadie-Bathurst head coach Mario Poulio,t he was happy to see his team won the first game but he is well aware of his team undisciplined.

“I like our intensity, our emotions but we have to control in every situations, we will have to play from whistle to whistle we took penalties after the play was whistled and it wasn’t the way we should play. We killed a five minutes and another four minutes for high sticking so we will have to keep the same desire, same intensity and emotion but we will have to play better.” Continued Titans head coach Mario Pouliot.

Victoriaville drew first blood in that QMJHL semifinal series as Vitalii Abramov completed great play by teammates Maxime Comtois and Ivan Koserenkov at 4:13. Acadie-Bathurst goaltender Evan Fitzpatrick can’t do anything on that play since Abramov only had to redirect the puck behind Titans netminder.

Acadie-Bathurst tied the game as the team had to kill a penalty to former Quebec Remparts Ethan Crossman. Titans right winger Justin Ducharme beat Tigres goaltender Etienne Montpetit between his pads but not before the puck hit center Simon Lafrance’s skake 3:28 after Victoriaville opened the scoring.

Victoriaville has been the beneficiary of two power plays in first period. First one has been a two minutes but second one was a four minutes for hit to the head. In both occasions Titans netminder kept the door closed.

Acadie-Bathurst took the lead for first time in the game with 37. 6 seconds left to the first period. The backhanded shot by Jeffrey Truchon-Viel been redirected by Ducharme for his second goal of the game beating Fitzpatrick top shelve.

Trailing by one after first period, Victoriaville missed some opportunities to tie the game. Ethan Crossman on breakaway misses great scoring opportunity for Tigres.

After the hit to the head by Titans defenseman Olivier Galipeau on Maxime Comtois wasn’t penalized Acadie-Bathurst took a twogoal leads as the shot from Titans defenseman Galipeau from the blue-line beat Montpetit between his pads at 5:44 of the middle frame. German Robtsov and Jimmy Truchon-Viel got the assists on first power play goal by Acadie-Bathurst on three occasions.

Already scoring in shorthanded situation, Acadie-Bathurst scored another goal in same circumstances as Truchon-Viel shot on breakaway beat Montpetit at 8:28.

Titans came back adding a fifth goals in the game, third one in second periods. The two-on-one breakaway goal by Acadie-Bathurst saw Justin Ducharme made perfect pass to Ethan Crossman whom only had to put it in at 9:49.

Victim of five goals on 26 shots, Victoriaville head coach Louis Robitaille decided to make a chance in goal pulling Etienne Montpetit sending Tristan Cote Cazenave.

A five minutes major to Titan Elijah Francis opened the door to Victoriaville that already trailing by four goals. Jimmy Huntington redirect a shot from the blue line by defenseman Vincent Lanoue for Tigres second goals with 3:19 to play in middle frame.

Truchon-Viel scored Acadie-Bathurst sixth goals in an empty net with 54 seconds left in third periods.

Players and head coach comments courtesy of KYQ 95.7 FM Victoriaville radio,

Game two of the QMJHL semifinal round will be on Saturday night.

Only one QMJHL other semifinal series were on schedule on Friday night.

Charlottetown 1 vs. Blainville-Boisbriand 3 (Blainville-Boisbriand lead semifinal series 1-0)

Contact the author at: serge.poulin@prohockeynews.com