QUEBEC CITY, P.Q. — In the first of two important games in the next 24 hours, Quebec lost against Gatineau Olympiques. Two goals by Olympiques center Jean-Gabriel Pageau were enough to fuel the Olympiques.
Gatineau thought they opened the scoring when Raphael Lafontaine beat Quebec goaltender Louis Domingue but luckily for Patrick Roy’s team, referee Eric Charron had lost sight of the puck and stopped the play before the puck crossed the goal line, after the referee whistle.
After Lafontaine’s missed opportunity, Domingue made several key saves notably against defenseman Nicolas Deslauriers, left winger Cody Linteau and Felix Bergeron but the Quebec netminder wasn’t able to prevent the Olympiques from breaking the ice.
Following an icing attempts by Quebec defenseman Guillaume Rousseau, the puck took a bad bounce along the side boards and went to Gatineau defenseman Mitchell Porowski’ stick taking a shot on net from the point.
Gatineau center Jean-Gabriel Pageau picked up the rebound and beat Domingue at 15:30 of the opening period.
Domingue kept Gatineau from adding to their lead facing 11 shots and making 10 saves including five shots that were considered good scoring chances.
Gatineau continued to apply pressure in the Quebec territory to begin the second period shooting four times against only one by Quebec in the first six minutes. A penalty to Gatineau defenseman Deslaurier gave to Quebec their first power play opportunity. Mirko Hoefflin got the only good scoring chance, Clermont made the save.
Gatineau took a 2-0 lead with the second of the night by Pageau who only had to push the puck behind Quebec goaltender following a rebound from first shot taken by defenseman Mathieu Gagnon. Pageau’s goal came at 12:45 and was the game winner.
Olivier Hinse broke his own scoring slump when he got Quebec on the board scoring his seventh of the year with 55.9 seconds remaining in second period.
Hinse last goal had been scored against the same Gatineau Olympiques on last November 28th 2010.
Quebec came out applying pressure all over the ice trying to get the puck behind Clermont who closed the door on Marchessault with several good scoring chances late in the third period. Alexandre Grenier also had a great chance to tie the game but it was too late for the visitors.
Quebec won’t have too much time to ruminate because they will face the Montreal Junior on Friday night in another key game for Patrick Roy’s team.
Other games in the QMJHL
Val-d’Or 3 vs. Acadie-Bathurst 4 (shootout)
Prince Edward 2 Island vs. Rimouski 3 (shootout)
Victoriaville 7 vs. Moncton 1
Montreal 4 vs. Lewiston 3
Contact the author at: serge.poulin@prohockeynews.com
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