LNAH: goaltenders steal the show so far in final

GRANBY, Québec – Goaltenders Frédéric Deschênes and Maxime Daigneault have written the story for the first two games of the Ligue nord-américaine’s final between the Saint-Georges CRS Express and Sherbrooke Saint-François, which is tied 1-1.
Friday, at Sherbrooke’s Palais des sports Léopold-Drolet, Saint-Georges’ Deschênes stopped 28 shots supporting his club’s 4-3 win. Then, Saturday, at Saint-Georges’ Centre sportif Lacroix-Dutil, Sherbrooke’s Maxime Daigneault stopped 33 of the 35 shots he faced when his team won 3-2.
Saturday, with 43 seconds to go in the third period, Daigneault made a miraculous save on Dany Roussin to seal Sherbrooke’s win.

“Maxime made the big saves all game long”, said Sherbrooke’s coach Éric Dandenault in Québec City’s Le Soleil daily paper. “We need those kinds of performances from our goalies against a team like Saint-Georges.”
Éric Perricone, Michael Novosad and Alexandre Gagné scored for Sherbrooke.
Yvan Busque, twice, was the only one to beat Daigneault.
“Yvan gave us a lot since the beginning of the playoffs”, said Saint-Georges’ coach Carl Fleury. “He works hard, he’s a true warrior.”
Fleury seemed not to be that disappointed after Saint-Georges’ loss at home.
“I think everybody knows it’s going to be a long series”, he said.
Friday, Saint-Georges’ trailed 3-1 after seven minutes in the second period when the LNAH’s best offence decided to go full speed. Roussin, Sidney Crosby’s left winger in the juniors, scored the winning goal at the sixth minute of the third period.
Jesse Bélanger, Jean-François Boucher and Busque scored the other Saint-Georges’ goals. Bobby Mazerolle, François Pagé and Novosad did the same for Sherbrooke. The third game of the series will take place in Sherbrooke on Friday. Saint-François and CRS Express will meet again for game four in Saint-Georges on Sunday afternoon.
  Contact Michel.Tasse@prohockeynews.com