QUEBEC CITY, P.Q. —Coming out from a trouncing in Chicoutimi on Thursday night, Baie-Comeau came to Quebec answering the challenge in front of friends and Families who came to see them play. A stunning performance by veteran Baie-Comeau goaltender Antoine Samuel (44 saves out of 45 Quebec shots) led the Drakkar to 4-1 win against Quebec Remparts. Drakkar captain Antoine Girard ended his game with a goal and assist earning second star of the game.
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“We have had tough game in Baie-Comeau (mostly me first) I have had bad game coming back from holiday, so today we were ready, we talk about it before the game that we have to come out strong. With the game been on T.V. friends and families coming to see us play, we didn’t have had choice to come out strong.” The first stars of the game Antoine Samuel said.
“I was afraid a blade cut me under my arm,” answered Samuel when the Drakkar netminder made a save, fortunately it wasn’t the case and everything was all right.” Answered Samuel to a reporter question after the game.
“We are young, we gave lots of shots game in, game out, we have to look the quality shots, guys gave around ten scoring chances by game and I have to make these saves, the other came from outside, it is the pattern since the season began,” continued the veteran netminder Samuel.
For winning head coach Martin Bernard, he seemed happy about the way his team bounced back from the loss Thursday.
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“It is a very important win for us, we had tough times to play against Quebec since the season began. Excepted from the second periods where we went too many times in the penalty box, we had tough times to control our sticks. We had guys who were emotional so it gave a period where we gave too many shots against.” Baie-Comeau head coach Martin Bernard said outside his team locker room.
“Antoine has been very solid like he used to, he made save at key times in the game, that gave confidence to young team like ours.” Underlines Drakkar head coach Bernard about his goalie performance.
“It is cool cause lately our offensive goals seemed hard to get since the season began so when we got performance like today where we can score two, three goals it is good for us,”
Baie-Comeau opened the scoring in Quebec on Saturday afternoon game. Drakkar defenseman Bradley Lalonde wrist shot surprised Quebec goaltender Dereck Baribeau on his left side with 12:54 to go in the opening period.
Baie-Comeau lose right winger Simon Chevrier following a fight with Quebec captain Matthew Boucher coming to the defense of Quebec new acquisition Pascal Laberge after Laberge been hit. Besides the usual five minutes for fighting Drakkar right winger has been toss out of the game.
After missing two chances with a man up o tie the game, Quebec tied the game at even strength, 3:45 into second period. Taking advantage of a turnover after the puck hit referee, Louis-Filip Cote found teammate Andrew Coxhead alone in the slot. Quebec young center beat Baie-Comeau veteran netminder Antoine Samuel on his right side.
Drakkar regained the lead 2:10 later. An individual effort by Antoine Girard led to Baie-Comeau second goals. Stealing the puck from Quebec defenseman Benjamin Gagne, Girard beat Quebec goalie Baribeau.
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Being 0-in-5 with a man advantage after forty minutes of play Quebec began the third periods with 1:18 left to Drakkar left winger Antoine Girard, penalty taken in last minutes of middle frame. Like the five preceding attempted Quebec was unable to take advantage of it to put a puck behind Samuel.
Baie-Comeau adds two more goals to their lead in third period. Taking a rebound shot from Antoine Girard shot from the blue line, D’Artagnan Joly put the puck behind Quebec netminder taking a two goals lead 3:59 into third periods.
Making first save on shot from Edward Aucoin, Quebec goalie Baribeau didn’t had any chance on Drakkar fourth goals as Isaiah Gallo-Demetris hit the puck in the air with 10:11 to play.
For his part, Quebec captain Matthew Boucher agreed about Drakkar netminder performance. “We got our chances we played a good game, we should screened him more often,” Quebec captain Matthew Boucher. “Antoine is a great goalie, we knew about it. He dominated the league for last two or three years. Antoine played a great game, scoring more goals could have helped.”
Quebec head coach Philippe Boucher went in same direction underlining Samuel performance. “45 shots on net usually we have chance to win,” Quebec head coach said. “We played better than Thursday night in Victoriaville. We would like to play with more passion, I think we did, offensively we look ourselves guys from here seem to like to come to play here.”
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“It is a working team,” Boucher said about Baie-Comeau. “I talked late last night to Drakkar G.M. Steve Ahern and he really wasn’t happy about his team last performance in Baie-Comeau against Chicoutimi, he address the situation this morning at the hotel. It is a team base on works, I have to give credit to them. Our power play did not work properly, we have guys at minus 1, minus 2, minus 3 every night that should play better.”
Quebec will end year 2017 in Rimouski on Sunday visiting their arch-rival Oceanic.
Two other games were on QMJHL schedule on Saturday
Cape Breton 2 vs. Halifax 5
Chicoutimi 2 vs. Drummondville 3
Contact the author at: serge.poulin@prohockeynews.com
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