QUEBEC CITY, P.Q. — Losing a week ago by the score of 5-1 in Bathurst, Quebec took their revenge winning 1-0 against the Acadie-Bathurst Titans. Quebec captain Bronson Beaton scored the only goal his team needed.
Quebec goaltender Callum Booth made save against young Titans right winger Christophe Boivin (11) photo by Serge Poulin
Playing their third game in three nights, the visitors didn’t play up to their kind of game, fatigue wasn’t an excuse for Titans head coach Mario Durocher.
“I will never take fatigue as an excuse,” answered Durocher explained of his team’s loss by 1-0. “When you look excuses behind the fatigue you didn’t look for solution. It wasn’t hard we didn’t used our strength, we didn’t used our speed, we didn’t move the puck like we used to, we didn’t execute we fought with the puck. I didn’t think we earned to win that game,” Durocher added.
Quebec had their chances on five power plays against only two for Acadie-Bathurst and for Titan head coach he seems to get hard time to understand the two penalties his teams gets for too many men on the ice.
Quebec defenseman Aaron Dutra (9) photo by Serge Poulin
“I have hard time to understand the two to many men penalties we got,” said Durocher near visitor locker room. “When I look the penalties the sixth on the ice it never happened, the second times we were five on the ice. The explanation referees gave me they said, “That it was the player who step on the ice who touch the puck and it was the 71 who gave the puck to the 11 and they were completely on the other side of the ice.
“I liked the way we protect the slot, they got lots of shot but lot of shots came from outside. They didn’t got dangerous shots, our penalty kill has been perfect it was 5-2 in power play for them, don’t know if the ice was bad but we didn’t seem to skate like we used to.” Durocher said.
After almost two periods without a goal, Quebec thought they had broken through when Alexander Sills pushed the puck in an empty net when he took the loose puck near the Titans goalie crease after the first shot taken by Matthew Boucher but losing the puck referee already had blew the whistle before the puck went in pushed by the Quebec center.
The only goal of the game belonged to Quebec captain Bronson Beaton who redirected a shot from the blue line by defenseman Raphael Maheux. Quebec center Auguste Impose got the other assist on Beaton goal at 15:30.
neutral zone between Acadie-Bathurst center Antoine Morand (88) and Quebec center Matthew Boucher (91) photo by Serge Poulin
“It was a tight one, it was a fun one,” Quebec veteran center Bronson Beaton said about the game. “We worked hard, we worked together the whole game and we were ready for it.”
“We still have to work on our power play, to get to the net and buried our chances for sure, I think we need to score more than one goal but at the end of the day we have been just happy with the win,” answered Beaton when a reporter referred to the time it took before getting a first goal when the team got five power play chances in the game but been shutout.
“I don’t know about that, answered the Quebec captain in reference to what his teammate goaltender Callum Booth said when he gave credit to all his teammates for the win by shutout. “He played an awesome game and I don’t think he should gave us the credit for that. He deserved the shutout, he worked all night he was here for us tonight and I want to give all the credit to him.”
“They are a good team on the other side too it was like a playoff game, all teams want to wins really bad and we came out on top and it was really nice.”
Earning his 50th win in the QMJHL Quebec goaltender made all 28 saves to register his third shutout of the season. “It was fun it took little times before getting it, it is fun I got lots of help from my teammates from the team and it really went well,” Quebec goaltender Callum Booth.
“I think I got lots of help and it went really well tonight,” answered Booth following a question about his reaction after coming back in the net after Kiselev got the nod for last game.
First save by Acadie-Bathurst goaltender Reilly Pickard photo by Serge Poulin
For one, Quebec head coach was happy following his team’s win against Acadie-Bathurst.
“Very well, he deserved it,” Quebec head coach Philippe Boucher said about his team performance. “I think we played much better we respect our structure more we paid the price Callum (Booth) did really well tonight. Tonight it was perfect, in Bathurst I think we didn’t gave him much support in the middle of the game it was hard for us in Bathurst, after thirty minutes we felt the fatigue and we didn’t played well in front of him. Tonight we played much better and he responded really well to the challenge and we hope he will continue to do it tomorrow.” Ended Quebec head coach Boucher.
Quebec will end their three games in four nights on Sunday afternoon hosting the Charlottetown Islanders.
Five other games were on QMJHL schedule on Saturday night
Baie-Comeau 5 vs. Drummondville 3
Rimouski 2 vs. Blainville-Boisbriand 5
Charlottetown 1 vs. Shawinigan 3
Saint John 5 vs. Halifax 1
Cape Breton 8 vs. Val-d’Or 1
Contact the author at: serge.poulin@prohockeynews.com
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