QUEBEC CITY P.Q. —Moncton took the first game winning 5-3 against Drummondville. Four different scorers contributed to the offence taking a 1-0 lead in the series. Wanting to dictate the tempo of the first period Drummondville played strong but Moncton drew first blood in the series. Wildcats defenseman Simon Jodoin didn’t give any chance to Drummondville goaltender Jake Allen beating him between the pads 1:23 into the opening period with a deflected shot from the blue line. The Voltigeurs tied the game less than a minute later. Sean Couturier completed great play from Gabriel Dumont and Christopher DiDominico at 2:14. The Voltigeurs was unable to take advantage of their power play being shutout in four occasions in the opening period. Moncton was 0-1 with a man advantage. Before the first period ended the Wildcats regained the lead 2-1. Randy Cameron found his teammate Nicholas Deschamps left alone at the blue line. Deschamps didn’t miss his opportunity and beat Allen on a breakaway at 17:53. Nicola Riopel answered the bell making 9 saves in the first, seven of Voltigeurs 10 shots were scoring chances. Allen on the other hand gave two goals on 9 shots four of them were good scoring chances. After seeing the Wildcats kill a penalty to begin the second period the young Couturier brought both teams back to square one with his second goal of the game taking his own rebound and beating Riopel with a backhand at 5:37. Moncton scored the next two goals building a two goal lead (4-2). Kelsey Tessier found Bourque who surprised Allen for the Wildcats third goal putting the puck between Allen’s pads and left post only 27 seconds after Drummondville scored their second goal. The Saulmier brothers joined up in scoring Moncton’s fourth goal. Alex Saulmier deflected his brother Alain’s shot beating Voltigeurs goaltender 9:45 in second period. Wildcats Captain Scott Brannon scored, unassisted, on a breakaway for Moncton’s fifth goal at 6:22 in third period. Remi Blanchard with a man advantage scored Drummondville third goal their only goal in this game with the power play at 17:13. Drummondville head coach Mario Duhamel saw good things in this first game even if his team came out on the losing end after this first game. “Definitely it was a great hockey game both teams played very well. We could have come out with the victory tonight. The line between a win and a loss is very thin we realized it tonight. We did not capitalized on several opportunities around their net; we lose the puck on some two-on-one or three-on-two we took bad decisions on several others chances we have had, that’s where the game played. We have lots of positive things to come out of a game like this; we will recharge our batteries and coming back for next game.” “We were ready for that game they scored first but we replied immediately so that showed we were ready for tonight game. For me it was a question of opportunities, Moncton was very opportunistic we weren’t,” Duhamel said. Goaltenders Moncton Nicola Riopel 37 shots 34 saves, Drummondville Jake Allen 28 shots 22 saves. Power plays Moncton 0-7 Drummondville 1-6. Three stars selections: first MON Nicholas Deschamps, second DRU Sean Couturier and third MON David Savard. Next Game will be Sunday afternoon on April 18 In Saint John, Victoriaville Tigres came out strong in the opening period on the road taking 2-0 lead scoring their two goals on first 8 shots inside the first three minutes, but it wasn’t enough as Saint John won the first game 4-2. Brandon Hynes 6:32 and Guillaume Goulet 9:11 scored first two Tigres goals. Saint John reduced Tigres’s lead to only one goal with Michael Kirkpatrick seventh of the playoff 10:26 of the first period. Victoriaville got the best in shots on goal 11-7 after one. After a scoreless second period where the Sea Dogs dominate the shots on goal department 12-7, Saint John scored three times on 13 shots on Victoriaville goaltender Keven Poulin in the third. Mike Hoffman, Mike Thomas and the second in the game by Kirkpatrick completed Sea Dogs offence for this first game of the four-out-of-seven quarter-finals series. Goaltenders Victoriaville Keven Poulin 32 shots 28 saves, Saint John Marco Cousineau 29 shots 27 saves. Power plays Victoriaville 0-2 Saint John 1-4. Three stars selections: first SNB Michael Kirkpatrick, second SNB Mike Hoffman and third Vic Joel Champagne. Next game in that series will be tonight (Saturday) 20:00 Maritime time 19:00 Eastern day time. Contact the author at: serge.poulin@prohockeynews.com
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