Quebec left winger Dmytro Timashov ends his game with two assists photo by Serge Poulin
QUEBEC CITY, P.Q. — Facing elimination, Cape Breton came in Quebec in do or die situation and the Screaming Eagles found a way to stay alive winning, 4-3, in overtime. Dillon Boucher’s goal forced game seven Tuesday night in Quebec.
“I’m proud of my players, it is a troops that never gave up. Tonight even when the score was 2-1 for Quebec they never gave up, the groups shows lots of dedications. But we believe in our chance we said at the beginning of the series that we would take games one game at the time. Now we will play game seven both teams won three games each. We do not have any complex against any teams since the last trading period,” Cape Breton head coach Marc-Andre Dumont said after the game.
“One indication of that is we have a better record than the Remparts since the last trading period. We played better than them we scored more goals and allowed more goals. We are right to believe in us that is what our players did and I tip my hat off to them.” Screaming Eagles coach said.
Cape Breton left winger Pierre-Luc Dubois got 1 goal 1 assist photo by Serge Poulin
After a scoreless first period, where Cape Breton dominated the shots on goal 15 to 8, Cape Breton opened the scoring playing shorthanded situation in three-on-five.
Going on two-on-one breakaway Quebec players saw Cape Breton defenseman Alexandre Gosselin intercepted a pass making key play leading to Clark Bishop breakaway goal first by Cape Breton trying to defend themselves on three-on-five shorthanded situation.
Quebec came back 3:06 later tying the score one goal apiece with Guillaume Gauthier second goal of the playoff. Gauthier’s shot went over Cape Breton Alexandre Belanger over his left shoulder.
Being 0-in-4 with a man advantage since the game began, Quebec took the lead for first time in game on their fifth power plays opportunities on perfect tic-tac-toe plays. Quebec defenseman Nikolas Brouillard made first pass to Dmytro Timashov who just redirect the puck to Adam Erne scoring his first of the night only six seconds after the penalty began to Screaming Eagles left winger Francis Brunelle in third period.
Cape Breton goaltender Alexandre Belanger play key role on Screaming Eagles wins in OT photo by Serge Poulin
Cape Breton replied with next two goals in 1:08 as Pierre-Luc Dubois redirect a shot from Evgeny Svechnikov to score his second of the playoff at 9:45.
Blocking a shot from Quebec defenseman Matt Murphy Cape Breton right winger Stephen Anderson went on breakaway beating Quebec netminder over left shoulder at 10:53 turning what was a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 lead for the Screaming Eagles.
Thinking they have been successful in their attempt to stay alive Screaming Eagles head coach Dumont saw the home team tied the game 3-3 with 24 seconds remaining in the third period with second goal of the game by Erne.
But with 9:24 gone in the first overtime after Cape Breton goaltender Belanger made key save on Erne, Dillon Boucher tip-in the puck behind Quebec netminder following a shot by Alexandre Gosselin.
“Yes for sure especially since Erne already have had two goals against me,” Screaming Eagles goaltender Alexandre Belanger said answering question about his reaction about Dillon Boucher’s goal leading them to victory in game six.
“It was a big save and gave the chance to my teammates to go on other side and score game winning goal forcing game seven on Tuesday. We expected that series to be tough one, we will have to be ready for tomorrow it will be a big game.” The goaltender said.
Big save by Quebec goaltender by Zachary Fucale against Evgeny Svechnikov photo by Serge Poulin
On the other side, experienced goaltender Zachary Fucale was the first to whom we asked questions about the game. “Sure it is tough, we expected them to go out strong offering good performance. We made mistakes here and there that cost us. Sure the loss was tough one it just happened.”
“We will have to work hard for sixty minutes,” answered for his part left winger Adam Erne as he tried to explain what his team will have to do to get the win in game seven. “We play great third period tonight, we will have to play full sixty minutes tomorrow. We want to win that’s it.” Erne said answering question about the pressure for game seven.
“At 2-1 we have had the game completely under control, we have had a two-on-one where we could capitalized. We often did same mistakes, we asked our players not to shoot the puck blindly in the slot but couple times after the puck was in our net.” Explained Quebec head coach Philippe Boucher in his post-game press conference.
Referring to a specific play in second period a two-on-one breakaway for Quebec the pass been intercepted by Alexandre Gosselin leading to Cape Breton first goal by Bishop, the Quebec coach Boucher said, “ Exactly we have had game under control things could have happened after but we played very well it was the play of the game.”
Game seven will be Tuesday night in Quebec.
Only one other series were on QMJHL schedule on Monday
Charlottetown 4 vs. Sherbrooke 3 (first overtime)
Contact the author at: serge.poulin@prohockeynews.com
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