Quebec trounces Victoriaville

Quebec first goal score by Anthony Duclair photo by Serge Poulin

QUEBEC CITY, P.Q. — Coming off a poor effort against Drummondville last Tuesday Quebec played much better in trouncing the Victoriaville Tigres 9-4 in front of 12,460 fans. Anthony Duclair (2-2) and Dmytro Timashov with two goals and two assists took charge of Quebec offensive.

Quebec took the lead scoring the first two goals of the initial period before seeing their opponent coming back to take the leads game 3-2 on three power play goals.

Duclair scored his third goal of the year as he made great moved to beat Victoriaville goaltender Olivier Tremblay with only 1:49 gone in the first Period.

A penalty to Victoriaville forward Gabriel Gagne opened the door to Philippe Boucher’s team scoring their second goal. A lose puck in Tigres half circle saw Quebec left winger Dmtro Timashov push the puck behind Tigres netminder less than five minutes later.

Victoriaville replied with the next four goals three in the first period and first one in second to take the lead by two. Two of the four goals were scored with the help of power plays. Unable to keep the rebound Quebec goaltender Zachary Fucale saw Gabriel Gagne broke the ice for the visitor at 7:14.

Quebec second goal score by Dmtro Timashov (88) photo by Serge Poulin

A penalty to Quebec defenseman Matt Murphy led to Victoriaville tying goal scored by Agelo Miceli at 12:09.

Victoriaville took the lead for first time 3:16 later with Mathieu Ayotte scoring his fifteen of the season beating Fucale to his left side. This goal was scored also as the visitor played with a man advantage.

Leading for the first time in the game Victoriaville added a fourth consecutive goal taking a 4-2 leads with only 1:37 gone in middle frame. Making first save on Miceli shot, Fucale was unable to control the rebound and Carl Marois scores Tigres fourth goals.

Allowing four goals on 13 shots Quebec head coach decided to pull his veteran netminder Fucale sending in Callum Booth.

“I’m not at ease to change my goaltender during games,” said Quebec head coach Philippe Boucher after the game. “It isn’t something I like to do but the situation, we would like to play better in second. Callum earns to see action, it is good to see he was solid. It might be what turn things around but what I liked the most was the body language of guys on the bench. Guys were full energy, they played very well and nobody let anything down.”

Victoriaville center Angelo Miceli score Tigres second goal on power play photo by Serge Poulin

Trailing by two Quebec scored the next seven goals to seal the victory. Already had onw goal one assist in the game Timashov scores Quebec third goal his second in the game cutting Victoriaville lead in half. Making first save on Kurt Etchegary shot Timashov only had to push the puck behind Tigres goalie at 4:19.

Playing four-on-three power play Quebec tied the game four goals-a-piece as Quebec defenseman Nikolas Brouillard one-timer shot left no chance to Victoriaville netminder at 8:02.

Coming back in front of Tigres goalie after stealing the puck to Tristan Pomerleau of Victoriaville, Marc-Olivier Roy beat Tremblay on his right side to score his twentieth of the year with 8:05 to play.

Back with Timashov and Adam Erne, Kurt Etchegary added his contribution to his team offense scoring also his twentieth of the season on perfect pass from Timashov.

Duclair with his second of the game at 7:21, defenseman Ryan Graves 21 seconds later with his tenth of the year and Raphael Maheux completed home team offense for the night.

“I think we work hard tonight, we practiced very well this week we become a better team and we won the game, said Dmytro Timashov who ended his night with four points two goals two assists.

Victoriaville goaltender Olivier Tremblay make the save to stop the play photo by Serge Poulin

“It was very hard, we worked this week in practice in our game against Drummondville we didn’t really worked. We knew they have less talented team than us but and they came out with the win,” said Quebec defenseman Nikolas Brouillard talking about Drummondville team.

“So this week we emphases the work ethic. The first ten minutes was possibly one of our best ten minutes of the regular season, we were aggressive we worked hard. Maybe we sit on our lead. So we have had great speech between periods so we came back strong.” Ended Quebec defenseman Nikolas Brouillard.

For Quebec’s head coach it was an improvement in play for his squad, “I told myself lots of things in my head honestly at 4-2,” said Quebec head coach in his post-game press conference. “But guys answered very well we were dominant in first ten minutes in first period we played exactly the way we wanted to play. We scored the first two goals and after that we have to admit it didn’t go well.”

On the other side, Victoriaville head coach Bruce Richardson said, “We were in control in first two periods, we played great hockey. But in third period it happened to us lately maybe we miss some maturity, we are young maybe we are tired, but we have to take our responsibility in our defensive zone.”

Quebec next game will be this Thursday hosting Gatineau Olympiques.

Six other games were on QMJHL schedule for Saturday night

Saint John 0 vs. Blainville-Boisbriand 4

Shawinigan 3 vs. Rimouski 4

Chicoutimi 5 vs. Acadie-Bathurst 0

Baie-Comeau 2 vs. Halifax

Sherbrooke vs. Gatineau 1

Val-d’Or 5 vs. Rouyn-Noranda 6 (overtime)

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