QUEBEC CITY, P.Q. — Quebec answered the challenge awaiting them with the visit of the Moncton Wildcats on Sunday afternoon playing well for a third game in three nights. Remparts metminder Louis Domingue was very sharp stopping 19 out of 21 shots against him.
The 11,920 fans who came to see the game returned home with smiles, enjoying the action all game long.
Led offensively by Ryan Bourque (1g-2a) the Remparts tried to dictate the tempo right from the start, shooting five times against Moncton goaltender Shawn Owen, allowing only one shot against, during the first ten minutes.
Moncton answered the bell in second portion of the first period shooting six other times on Louis Domingue who maintained a shutout in the first twenty minutes.
Bourque drew first blood in the battle of Titan for first in the overall standings taking advantage of Quebec first power play.
Taking a rebound shot from Martin Lefebvre the left winger beat Wildcats goalie with a wrist shot on Owen left side 5:05 into the opening period.
“It’s really a good thing coming back home winning the last two games,” Bourque said. “It was really a good test for us and showed our character as a team. If you look in the past, the way we would react is come back here and have a tough week. I think we regrouped and really came together as a team to pull out these two games.”
Talking about the line shuffling by Quebec head coach Patrick Roy in last two games Bourque answered, “There is enough depth on this team, we can really juggle like he did; and I think throughout the season, you will see, that different players can click with each other and we are all pretty close in this locker room, so whoever he puts together, seem to click.”
Quebec took a two goal lead when defenseman Vincent Barnard used Moncton defenseman Brandon Gormley as a screen beating Wildcats goalie Owen high on his stick side 10:12 into second period.
The Wildcats broke the ice in this important game with their first goal in the game before the siren sound announcing the end of second frame. Forgotten by Quebec defenseman Barnard, Moncton center Marek Hrivik beat Domingue for first Moncton goal cutting Remparts lead in half. Moncton goal came at 18:41.
Quebec regained their two goal lead 5:02 into third period when Olivier Hinse scored his fourth of the season deflecting a shot from defenseman Ryan Culkin giving no chance to Owen to make the save. Hinse’s goal became the game winning goal, following Moncton second goal later in the period.
“I had lots of chances in the past but the puck didn’t seem to get it in,” the left winger (Hinse) said about his goal after the game. “A bizarre play came in and I just flip the puck and it went in and it became the game winning goal, I was really happy.”
Devon MacAusland got his team back on track trailing by one goal, when he took a rebound from Scott Trask beating Quebec goaltender between his pads with a backhanded shot at 8:56.
Remparts captain Mikael Tam picked up Quebec’s fourth goal of the game sealing the fate of Moncton head coach Danny Flynn’s team at 18:53.
“We are really please with our game, I mean we played three games in three nights and it was their third games in last four nights for them, I thought both teams played very well,” Quebec head coach Roy said in his post game press conference.
“I thought both teams gave solid performances to the plan and I think that’s what we were looking for. If you look at the game itself, I mean, it was good tempo, we played very well defensively, they put lot of pressure on their forecheck we got the puck out of our zone. Offensively we were able to drive the net, I thought we were sharp around their net to pick up rebound and that’s how we scored two of our goals,” Roy said.
Quebec will be the beneficiary of couple days off before going back to the ice and begins the preparation for next game this coming Friday October 29 against Chicoutimi Sagueneens.
Contact the author at: serge.poulin@prohockeynews.com
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