QUEBEC CITY P.Q. — Drummondville defenseman Charles Landry played the hero in Game Three for the Voltigeurs scoring the game winning goal 9:54 into overtime for a 2-1 victory. The wing gets the Voltigeurs back in the series with Moncton now up 2-1. History wasn’t on the Voltigeurs side in this series. QMJHL playoff history has shown that only five times has a team was able to come from behind and won a series after losing first two. And one of the team successfully come from behind to win a series. Quebec did it last season by defeating the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles in seven games after losing the first two.
Knowing that history isn’t on their side, it didn’t seem to affect Drummondville entering Game Three. They dominated the shots on goal department 9-3 in the first ten minutes of the game but Moncton scored with 6:58 remaining in the first period. Kelsey Tessier made a great pass to Gabriel Bourque beating Jake Allen blocker side for the first goal in the game.
Drummondville continued to play a strong game in the second period and was helped by making some key saves from Allen against Wildcats forward Nicholas Deschamps, a St. Louis Blues prospect, making two consecutive saves and prevented Moncton from adding to their lead.
Even though the Wildcats dominated the shots on goal, the Voltigeurs found a way to tie the score at 1-1. Drummondville Captain Marc-Olivier Vachon found a hole on Moncton goaltender Nicola Riopel’s right side beating him at 16:25 of the second period. The Wildcats had three good scoring chances in the first five minutes of the third period but couldn’t convert. Both goaltenders made some key saves forcing the game into overtime. Charles Landry ended the suspense scoring 9:54 into first period of overtime with his third of playoff.
Goaltenders: Drummondville – Jake Allen 41 shots, 40 saves Moncton – Nicola Riopel 34 shots, 32 saves
Power plays: Drummondville 0-5
Moncton 0-4
In Victoriaville: The Tigres won their first game of the against Saint John 6-3 but the Sea Dogs are still up 2-1 in the other QMJHL conference final. The Tigres were already familiar with their predicament having faced a similar situation in first round against Shawinigan. Trailing 2-1 against the Cataractes, Victoriaville came out with a great effort in game four to eventually eliminate Shawinigan.
Victoriaville came out like a caged Tiger who just got released from his cage, Victoriaville broke out to a 3-0 lead after the first period. The line of Philip-Michael Devos (2-3), Chris Doyle (0-1) and Tomas Kubalik (0-1) took control of the Tigres’ offensive.
Phillipe Maillet (7:07), Chris Doyle (power play goal) (8:06) and Devos (13:55) scored Victoriaville goal in opening period and added a fourth goal before Saint John broke the ice with their first goal of the night. Saint John defenseman Simon Despres scored for the Sea Dogs with the man advantage (10:41), but Victoriaville came back before the end of the second period with goal number five when Travis MacIsaac scored at 17:30.
A penalty to Victoriaville’s Mike Hoffman 53 seconds into the third period (five minutes and game misconduct) was a golden opportunity served on a silver platter for Saint John to reduce the lead. The Sea Dogs didn’t miss scoring next two goals on the same power play opportunity as Michael Kirkpatrick (1:59) and Yan Sauve (3:39) cut the Tigres lead to 5-3. But like the second period, Victoriaville came back scoring goal number sixth on a power play at the 13:26 mark.
Goaltenders: Saint John – Marco Cousineau 45 shots 39 saves Victoriaville – Kevin Poulin 46 shots 43 saves.
Power plays
Saint John 3-3
Victoriaville 3-7
Contact the author at: serge.poulin@prohockeynews.com
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