Quebec earns the right to take part in President Cup final

Quebec center Kurt Etchegary scores Home team fourth goals photo by Serge Poulin

QUEBEC CITY, P.Q. —Winner of the first three games in QMJHL semi-final Quebec left no doubt on the issue of Game 4. Anthony Duclair, Kurt Etchegary and Adam Erne took charge of Quebec offense accumulating a total of 14 points in 7-0 win against Moncton. Now Quebec will have to wait the winner of the other series between Val-d’Or and Rimouski led 3-0 by the Oceanic after Rimouski won Game 3, 4-2.

Like the preceding game Quebec took the lead early in first period and dominated the game leading 5-0 after first period, for one Moncton defenseman Jacob Sweeney had been the first to recognize it wasn’t easy to come from behind against a team build for the Memorial Cup.

“It is tough when you trailed 0-3 in series, finding the momentum to bounce back is tough. Fur sure the fatigue played part in this we didn’t have had time off since last series, sure it wasn’t an excused but we didn’t played our best hockey. The game is on the ice it’s a great team on the other side and I wish them the best.” Moncton defenseman Sweeney said after his team had been eliminated.

Quebec left winger Anthony Duclair scores Quebec second goal photo by SergePoulin

“It’s been the second times in as many game that we gave the first goal so sure it didn’t helped us. We already were a tired team and a goal in the first minutes always hurt,” yhe defenseman said about the first goal his team allowed.

Erne broke the ice with his 14th of the playoff with only 1:13 gone in first period redirecting a shot from Anthony Duclair to Alex Dubeau left side.

Trying to change tempo of the game Moncton right winger Lane Cormier dropped the gloves facing Quebec forward Yanick Turcotte. Unfortunately the fight turned to Quebec let winger.

Duclail came less than three minutes later scoring Quebec second goal completing great play by teammates Kurt Etchegary and Erne. At 3:52.

Erne scored his second goal in the game on Quebec’s sixth shot beating Dubeau at 6:36.

Playing on their first power play of the game Quebec strikes again this time making first save on Guillaume Gauthier shot, Wildcats netminderAlex Dubeau did not have any chance as Kurt Etchegary scores first of two goals in the first period at 16:56.

Quebec center came back less than two minutes later on a two-on-one breakaway. Etchegary backhanded shot beat Moncton netminder on left side with 1:18 remaining in the opening period.

Trying to change tempo in game Lane Cormier drop his gloves against Quebec Yanick Turcotte photo by Serge Poulin

After one period of play the line of Duclair (1g-3a) Etchegary (2g-2a) and Erne (2g-2a) already got 12 points.

Quebec scored the only goal of the middle frame. Captain Kurt Etchegary registered his first career hat trick as he took the rebound from teammates Raphael Maheux beating goaltender Dubeau getting his fifth points in the games after exactly 1:00 of play in second period.

“We came out working hard we gel like “Tony” (Anthony Duclair) said the puck went in the net for us,” Quebec captain Kurt Etchegary said as answering question about the chemistry between the three players.

“I think we have full guys who want to win, everyone want to block shots, everyone to get a hit to make a play, “Turk” (Yanick Turcotte) look after us like a father, handling everyone who gets in our face, I think we just became a family our line gel well together, everybody stepping up so it’s good feeling.” Ended Quebec center Etchegary.

Quebec came back in third scoring another goal their seventh of the game. Defenseman Aaron Dutra’s shot from blue line has been redirect by Vladimir Tkachev on Dubeau left side at 5:01.

“We start real well our guys were ready to play, the first goal scored on us was due to guys doing too much so we can’t fault the guys fought hard just made bad reads and Quebec got serious firepower. Every time we have a breakdown in the series they were able to capitalize on it, they got fantastic players especially up front, they were able to score out of the rush. Most of their goals were scored out of the rush in the series.

“We tried to make some adjustment in our short skate this morning. We talked about our for-check put puck in deep tried to put the puck behind their defensemen but at the end of the day it didn’t matter what we did they are such a good team we will give them credit.” Moncton head coach Darren Rumble said after the game in his last post-game press conference.

For Quebec head coach Philippe Boucher he was very happy to see his team taking part of the President up final.

Quebec right winger Adam Erne scores Quebec first and third goals in first period photo by Serge Poulin

“Very proud of our team performance and our goaltender at my right. We earned everything it wasn’t easy for us as far as the road to go there.” Answered Quebec head coach Boucher.

“It was to see the team growing-up we have guys who are there from the beginning we have had ups and down during the year and what make me proud of is to see all the accomplishment we did during the regular season and the road we did for getting here.”

No date has been determined yet for the President Cup final debut. Quebec will have to wait the winner of the other semi-final.

One other Simi-Final series is on QMJHL schedule for Tuesday night

Rimouski 4 vs. Val-d’Or 2 (Rimouski led series 3-0)

Contact the author at: serge.poulin@prohockeynews.com