QUEBEC CITY, P.Q. —Trailing by one after two periods of play and by two in third period, Quebec scored three unanswered goals to win 3-2 in overtime against the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles. Acquired by Quebec from Charlottetown Islanders with Matthew Groutchy at last QMJHL trading deadline, Gregor MacLoad scored game winning goal only 50 seconds into overtime giving Quebec their 24th win of regular season.
After having kept the door closed on Tyler Hylland (twice) and Jordan Ty Fournier, Quebec goaltender couldn’t do anything on Cape Breton power play goal scored by Brooklyn Kalmikov.
A five-minute penalty and game misconduct to Quebec defenseman Marc-Olivier Alain opened the door leading to the only goal scored in first period.
Making first save on shot from the blue line by Adam McKormick, Kalmikov the first round pick (15th overall) in 2017, beat Quebec goalie Antoine Samuel scoring his 13th of the regular season, with 7:59 to play in first period.
Louis-Filip Cote, Gregor MacLoad and Pascal Laberge got great scoring chances on Quebec side but each times Screaming Eagles netminder Kyle Jessiman made the saves. Quebec dominated 13-6 in shots on goal but on main scoreboard Cape Breton led 1-0.
Quebec continued to dominate shots on goal 9-5 for a total of 22-11 after 40 minutes of play but still unable to put a puck behind Screaming Eagles goaltender. Visitor got two great chances at even strength with Matthew Groutchy and Andrew Coxhead but each times Jessiman said no, keeping his team lead by one after two periods of play.
Going 0-for-2 with a man up Quebec got another chance their third in the game with 1:31 remaining in second period.
Unable to take advantage of last 29 seconds remaining on Isiah Campbell penalty taken with 1:31 left to play in second period Quebec saw the Screaming Eagles adds a second goal to their lead.
Trying to kill a penalty to teammate Egor Sokolov, Cape Breton took advantage of a bad pass by Quebec center Philipp Kurachev as Tyler Hylland took the loose puck in center ice beating Quebec netminder with a backhand shot with 11:45 remaining in third periods.
Playing four-on-four hockey Quebec captain Matthew Boucher broke the ice for the visiting team breaking a scoring slump as he hadn’t scored in last three games. It was Quebec 27th shots on Screaming Eagles netminder Jessiman.
As often heard in past by players or head coach the worst lead to have for a team is a two goal leads. As it is often the case after cutting opponent lead in half, the team that trailed successfully made the come from behind.
Quebec came back just over five minutes later with the tying goal. Going three-in-53 on power play since coming back from Christmas break Quebec took advantage of their fifth power play opportunities to tie the game at two.
Acquired from Victoriaville at last trading deadline in the QMJHL Pascal Laberge redirect a shot from teammate defenseman Christian Huntley to score Quebec second goals in the game, his fourth in 10th games in his new uniform and his 10th of regular season at 14:38.
With the score tied 2-2 both teams went in overtime to try to win the game. Showing a record of 7-3-2 in overtime Gregory MacLoad only needed 50 seconds to give Quebec their eighth wins in overtime, their 24th wins of regular season.
Quebec next stop will be in Moncton on Friday night visiting the Wildcats.
Three other games were on QMJHL schedule
Moncton 4 vs. Halifax 3 (overtime)
Baie-Comeau 1 vs. Blainville-Boisbriand 4
Sherbrooke 5 vs. Gatineau 7
Contact the author at: serge.poulin@prohockeynews.com
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