QUEBEC CITY, P.Q. —Playing a solid game for the first half of game five in front of their fans, Saint John needed to go to overtime for the third time in their series before earning their place in the President’s Cup final. It was the second goal in the game by Stanislav Galiev on a two-on-one breakaway with Charles Coyle leading the Sea Dogs to 4-3 overtime win.
Back home after losing game four in Chicoutimi, Saint John began the game showing some aggressiveness looking to dictate the tempo of the game.
With the game just 18 seconds old, Florida Panthers prospect Jonathan Huberdeau hit from behind Chicoutimi forward Charles Hudon, but was not penalized by referee Jonathan Langeville or Andre Maillet.
The Chicoutimi forward left the ice helped by teammates and never came back in the game.
Besides showing some toughness on the ice the Sea Dogs scored the first two goals in a span of just 10 seconds.
With Sagueneens Christian Ouellet in penalty box, Danick Gauthier’s shot hit Charles Coyle’s thigh giving 1-0 lead to Sea Dogs at 7:40. Just ten seconds later. Taking his own rebound after Chicoutimi netminder made first save, Zach Phillips took his own rebound beating Christopher Gibson with a backhanded shot.
Dominated most of the first period (20-10 shots on goal for Saint John), Chicoutimi replied with a late period goal by Steve Lebel who redirected a shot by Gabriel Bouret with 1:03 remaining to the first period.
One name resumed the second period, Christopher Gibson. After the Chicoutimi netminder successively frustrated Sea Dogs forwards Stanislav Galiev, Huberdeau and Gauthier, Saint John continued their domination for first 10 minutes of second period without being able to put the puck behind Chicoutimi goaltender.
Playing without one of their best players in Hudon after only 18 seconds in first period, Chicoutimi came back playing much better scoring the only goal in second period.
Sagueneens defenseman Dominic Poulin brought both teams back to square one scoring his first of playoff at 12:35.
Galiev put Saint John back in command 3-2 with his 11th of the playoff with 10:39 left in third period.
Trailing by one with 5:02 to go in third period Chicoutimi right winger Yoan Pinette had other things in mind, when he surprised Saint John goaltender Mathieu Corbeil with a backhanded shot tying the score 3-3 leading both teams to overtime for the third times each team having won once.
Saint John began the overtime period putting pressure on their opponent in first five minutes but as he did for most of the game Gibson closed the door until the 11:19 seconds of the extra period.
The second goal by Galiev on a two-on-one breakaway with Coyle ended any Chicoutimi hope to still alive and play game six back in Chicoutimi.
After the game Chicoutimi head coach Marc-Etienne Hubert praised his team’s efforts.
“We have to be proud of what we have done we pushed three game in overtime in last four they have had three wins in four in overtime. We came out of big series against Shawinigan in seven games we have to be proud of our team. We are a team that is tough to kill we came back until the end in that series, same thing in series against the Cataractes. We have to be very proud of what our players did.”
“Tonight it didn’t begin our way. They took Hudon out to start the game. It should have been a five minutes and a game misconduct for check from behind. At least they could have loss Huberdeau, we have loses Hudon, we should have a five minutes power play to begin the game.” Sagueneens head coach Hubert said in his post game press conference following his team elimination.
In the other QMJHL semifinal series, game six between Rimouski and Halifax is scheduled for Sunday afternoon in Halifax.
Contact the author at: serge.poulin@prohockeynews.com
You must be logged in to post a comment.