QUEBEC CITY, P.Q. —Already leading two games to zero Quebec came to Charlottetown knowing they had to play the next three games in hostile territory. Taking a 2-1 lead after the first period the visitors never looked back and signed a 5-2 win against Charlottetown pushing the home team on verge of elimination leading the quarter-finals series 3-0. Jerome Verrier with two goals, led the Quebec offensive charge.
Taking advantage of their first power play opportunity Charlottetown breaks the ice with first goal of the game. Daniel Sprong on one-timer following great pass by teammate Bradley Kennedy beat Quebec goaltender Zachary Fucale on right side at 5:47.
Quebec defenseman Matt Murphy was in the box guilty of hooking at 5:07.
Quebec captain missed excellent opportunity to tie the game as he saw his shot as he went on breakaway hit the post at the right of Charlottetown goaltender Daryl MacCallum.
Quebec took advantage of their first power play opportunity to tie the game one goal-apiece. Quebec right winger Jerome Verrier redirect a shot from the blue line by Ryan Graves for his first of two goals in first period at 10:44. Scoring five goals in 31 regular season game Verrier scores his fifth of the playoff in 9 games.
Quebec takes the lead for first time in the game as Verrier took first shot following great pass from center Massimo Carozza. Seeing Ilslanders netminder making save the former Drummondville Voltigeurs forward beat MacCallum over his right shoulder with backhanded shot at 14:19.
Quebec ended the first period on power play and began second on power play following a four minutes penalties to Charlottetown left winger Ross Johnson.
Beginning the second period with a man-advantage following the penalty given to Ross Johnson Quebec scores their third goal just as the Islanders forward ended his four minutes penalty.
Defenseman Matt Murphy beat Charlottetown netminder to his left with 17:03 remaining in middle frame.
Quebec adds a fourth goal with 4:22 left on the clock in second period. Coming out of corner with the puck Adam Erne came back in front of MacCallum and slides the puck between his pads with backhanded shot.
With Quebec defenseman Ryan Graves been thrown-out of the game following a five-minute major for high sticking, Charlottetown scored their second goal with a man advantage as Damiel Sprong scores his second of the game redirecting a puck behind Quebec netminder with only 2.2 second on the clock.
Quebec began third period with two excellent chances to add to their lead. First Charlottetown goaltender prevent Quebec forward Verrier of possible hat trick with a pad save as the Quebec right winger went on breakaway.
The other occasion was a two-on-one breakaway as Kurt Etchegary and Dmytro Timashov but another save by MacCallum kept the score 4-2.
While Islanders netminder made two key saves previously he wasn’t able to do anything on Guillaume Gauthier wrist shot that beat Islanders goalie on his right side with 6:28 left in the third period.
Game four of that quarter-final series will be Thursday night in Charlottetown.
Three other Quarter-Finals were on QMJHL schedule on Tuesday
Moncton 4 vs. Halifax 3
Rimouski 5 vs. Gatineau 2
Val-d’Or 3 vs. Baie-Comeau 6
Contact the author at: serge.poulin@prohockeynews.com
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