QUEBEC CITY P.Q. — Drummondville, Moncton and Rimouski all lead their series 2-0 thanks to their recent victories in game two of their respective best-of-seven series in the QMJHL. Gatineau, Shawinigan and Rouyn-Noranda are tied in their respective series 1-1.
In Rimouski: Chicoutimi appeared to lose energy in their first game after trying to come back but still lost the opener by one goal, Rimouski didn’t want to leave any doubt in the second game at home scoring six goals in the opening period to win 9-3.
Three players came out of the game with two goals each: Alex Emond, Alex Belzile and Ryan Kavanagh. Felix Lefrancois, Gabriel Vallee and Charles-Antoine Roy completed the scoring for Clement Jodoin’s team. Mathieu Populus, Alexandre Lavoie and Rock Rejimbald replied for Richard Martel’s team.
Robin Gusse was pulled from the net by Sagueneens head coach Martel at 11:44 after allowing four goals on first 9 shots. Christopher Gibson gave 5 goals on 23 shots. Rimouski dominated 17-5 in shots on goal in the first period ending with 32 against 24 for Chicoutimi.
The three starts of the game went to Alex Belzile, Ryan Kavanagh and Gabriel Vallee. 3086 fans returned home happy after seeing there favorite taking a 2-0 lead in their series.
In Victoriaville: After losing first game one, Shawinigan came out playing better in a 2-1 win to tie the series 1-1. The Cataractes opened the scoring with only 39 seconds in the opening period on their first good scoring chance. Philippe Paradis beat Kevin Poulin who faced a total of 41 shots in the game. Paradis came back almost two minutes later with Shawinigan’s second goal on a power play at 2:37. That’s all Eric Veilleux’s team needed to tie the series at one all.
Victoriaville scored their only goal of the game when Travis McIsaac beat Cataractes netminder Gabriel Girard at 14:27 of the opening period. Contrary to the first game, Victoriaville was undisciplined in game two taking a lot of penalties in the offensive zone.
The Tigres head coach mentioned disciplined will be very important in the series. After Game one his players respected what was said before the game. It was a different stories in game number two. But Tigres coach didn’t panic, he knew his team won six out of eight confrontations during the season and still had confidence his player would do the job.
The three stars of the game were Shawinigan’s Philippe Paradis (two goals), Victoriaville’s Kevin Poulin and Cataractes netminder Gabriel Girard, who faced 33 shots from Victoriaville.
In Moncton: the Wildcats took a 2-0 lead in their series winning 6-0 against Cape Breton.
Marek Hrivik 4 points (2g-2a), Randy Cameron (2g) and Kelsey Tessier (3 assists) were the Wildcats leaders in the shutout victory. Hrivik scored his first of the game, the only goal in first period, on a power play that was completed on a great play by Tessier and Gormley at 12:23.
The Wildcats came back in the middle frame adding three goals, two by Cameron. Defenseman Mark Barberio and Hrivik scored both goals with the man advantage to close out the night offensively for Moncton. The three stars of the game went to Tessier, Cameron and Hrivik. Olivier Roy faced 26 shots making 20 saves; Nicola Riopel made 27 saves for the shutout.
In Drummondville, the Voltigeurs scored four goals in the first period in a 5-1 win over the Lewiston MAINEiacs. Drummondville came out strong the first twenty minutes, but Lewiston never gave up trying to limit the damage the rest of the game.
Four different scorers beat Lewiston netminder Adrien Lemay in the opening period. Gabriel Dumont, Sean Couturier (shorthanded), Jonathan Brunelle and Christopher DiDominico.
After a scoreless second, Stefan Fournier (Lewiston) beat Drummondville goalie Jake Allen to prevent the shutout at 2:47. Gabriel Dumont came back with his second of the night with 3:02 gone in third period. Lemay faced 47 shots making 32 saves; Jake Allen faced only 19 shots making 18 saves. Drummondville dominated the first period with 21-4 shots on goals.
Dumont, DiDominico and Olivier Hotte earned the three stars in the game.
In Saint John: The Prince Edward Island Rockets were the surprise of the night defeating the Sea Dogs 6-3 to tie the series at 1-1.
Forwards Benjamin Casavant (2g-1a), Jarad Struthers (2g-2a), Samson Method (0g-3a) and defenseman Jean-Philippe Mathieu were the Rockets offensive leaders. Nicholas Petersen, Mike Hoffman and Zach Phillips replied offensively for Saint John.
After a scoreless first period, Saint John opened the hostility by taking a 1-0 lead. Phillips drew first blood in the game at 4:56 but the rest of the period belonged to PEI. Jarad Struthers, Benjamin Casavan and Jonathan Bonneau gave the Rockets a 3-1 lead.
PEI came back in the third period scoring two goals by Struthers and Casavant to give PEI a four goal lead. Saint John tried to come back scoring two goals reducing the Rockets lead to two goals. Nicholas Petersen and Mike Hoffman scored the Sea Dogs second and third goals, but Louis-Philippe Lacroix crashed all Saint John’s hopes of a coming back with the Rockets sixth goal of the game at 18:51. Saint John scored all of their goals with the man advantage going 3-7. PEI ended the night scoring only one of their six goals on six power plays opportunities.
Evan Mosher saw action in the series for the first time facing 44 shots making 41 saves. Marco Cousineau began the game for Saint John but was replaced by Karel St. Laurent. Cousineau came back into the game but left for good at 18:51 of the third period.
Jared Struthers and Evan Mosher were the first two stars of the game for PEI while the third star went to Christian Morin of Saint John.
In Rouyn-Norenda; the Huskies came back to tie their series by winning 5-3 in front of 2117 happy fans.
Jordan Caron (2g-1a), defenseman Dmitry Kostromitin (1g-3a) and center Jeff Desjardins (two assists) led the offense for Rouyn-Noranda over Val-d’Or Foreurs. Philippe Cornet and Nicolas Desrosiers completed the scoring for the Huskies. Jonathan Hazen, Samuel Morneau and Maxime Sauve scored for Val-d’Or.
Five goals were scored in the opening period, three by the Huskies. The Foreurs scored first on a power play at 8:54. Former Rimouski Oceanic forward Philippe Cornet tied the score at one less than three minutes later at 11:17. The next three goals were scored on the power play. The only goal in the second period belonged to Val-d’Or forward Maxime Sauve who tied the score at 3-3. Dmitry Kostromitin and Jordan Caron sealed the Foreurs fate to tie the series 1-1.
Raphael D’Orso faced 31 shot making 26 saves on the night, Nicholas Champion faced 19 shots and made 16 shots. The Val-d’Or power play went 2-6 while Rouyn-Noranda was 3-7.
All three stars went to Rouyn-Noranda players: Jordan Caron, Christopher Losier and Nicholas Champion.
In Montreal: the Gatineau Olympiques came out with a 4-2 win over the Montreal Junior to tie the series at 1-1. Four different scorers scored for the Olympiques: Defensemen Mathieu Gagnon and Adam Janosik; and forwards Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Tye McGinn. Jeremie Gouchie and captain Trevor Parkes got Montreal on the scoreboard.
Five of the six goals scored in the game were with the man advantage. The Olympiques scored their first two on the power play by Janosik (8:32) and Gagnon (17:13). The teams traded goals in the second. Montreal broke the ice with their first in the game thanks to Jeremie Gouchie who beat Olympiques goalie Maxime Clermont at 4:01.
Tye McGinn replied for Gatineau on a power play at 11:23. Montreal reduced Gatineau’s lead to one with another power play goal by Trevor Parkes at 4:34. That left plenty of time for Pascal Vincent’s team to tie the game, but Gatineau sealed Montreal’s coffin by scoring their fourth goal of the game when Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored on the power play and shot the puck into an empty net with 18 seconds remaining in the game.
Maxime Clermont faced 37 shots making 35 saves for Gatineau. Montreal netminder Jean-Francois Berube faced 25 shots making 21 saves. The three stars of the game went to Tye McGinn (Gatineau), Trevor Perkes (Montreal) and Maxime Clermont (Gatineau).
Contact the author at: serge.poulin@prohockeynews.com
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