QUEBEC CITY P.Q.— Back home, the Gatineau Olympiques hope to play a much better game in front of their fans. The Olympiques were dominated in the second half of the game in a losing effort against the Montreal Junior.
The Olympiques came out playing very good hockey in the first 10 minutes scoring the first goal of the game with a man-advantage at 11:46 thanks to a wrap-around goal by right winger Yoan Pinette. Montreal evened the score less than two minutes later when Matthew Brenton beat Gatineau netminder Maxime Clermont.
Drafted in first round by Montreal, 14th overall in 2009, Xavier Ouellet impressed lots of people but more importantly his head coach Pascal Vincent. Ouellet took every chance he got to show his talent. Good skater, great anticipation, not afraid of being hit, some might even say he might take the same road as former Quebec Remparts defenseman Marc-Edward Vlasic now with the San Jose Sharks.
Montreal accentuated their control in second half of the first period. The Junior scored two goals on their first three shots in the second period. Trevor Parkes, during a penalty to Gatineau forward Alex Noel, gave his team a one goal lead with only 5 minutes gone in the second period.
Montreal defenseman Vincent Bougeois, left alone in the slot, beat , Clermont on a one-timer for the third Junior goal at 7:18. The Olympiques played very poorly in their defensive zone unable to complete first passes thus creating turnovers where Montreal took advantage. Parkes added another goal for head coach Vincent beating Clermont on his glove side with 13:20 gone. Olympiques goaltender was beaten three times on first Montreal 6 shots. Playing key role in his team victory last Saturday, the first round selection 13th overall by Gatineau in 2007 didn’t seem to be sharp tonight giving some rebound, and couple soft goals to the opponent team.
Gatineau scored the last goal in the second period during a penalty to Junior defenseman Jonathan Narbonne. Hugo Laporte shot from the blue line didn’t give any chance to Montreal goaltender Jean-Francois Berube.
Louis-Marc Aubry scored Montreal’s fifth goals, second with a man-advantage, in the game during a penalty to Gatineau defenseman Hugo Laporte at 8:06. Aubry’s goal was scored at 9:07 in the third period.
With the 5-2 victory in Gatineau, Montreal regained home ice advantage with the next game to be played this Wednesday night 7:30 also in Gatineau.
The game’s three stars went to Montreal right winger Trevor Parkes, the second stars also to another Montreal right winger Guillaume Asselin and the third one went to Yoan Pinette of Gatineau. Power plays: Montreal 2-3 Gatineau 2-5. Shots on goals: 24 on both sides.
Contact the author at: serge.poulin@prohockeynews.com
