Victoriaville win game three at home

QUEBEC CITY, P.Q. —Back home after splitting first two games of that series, playing third games I last four days, Victoriaville sign 5-4 win against Drummondville even if they only shots 19 times allowing 31 to Drummondville. Tigres center Simon Lafrance earned the first star ending with a goal and two assists.

“I was anxious to score, tonight when I saw I played with Vitalii Abramov and Ivan Kosorenkov I told myself it could be a good fit. We played a good game tonight so that is why I have been rewarded.” Victoriaville forward Simon Lafrance said.

“I like the way we worked, in second periods besides the shots on goal we had lot of puck possession time we kept the puck deep in their zone. Victoriaville head coach Louis Robitaille said

“They scored two goals, what did not worked, first shot got eyes, second was a play blocked by a player came back on Ivan Mongo stick. They scored twice, we had three goals in advance and we still won with one so what I like was we still calm after their two goals, we kept the puck deep in their territory even if on the other side they got a little storm. They pushed, pushed and pushed but we saw veteran make important play, Sevigny, Lafrance even Smith putting the puck behind the other net, that is what made closing the game,” concluded Tigres head coach Robitaille.

For third time in as many games, Victoriaville opened the scoring against Drummondville. Tigres center Simon Lafrance one-Timer on great pass by Vitalii Abramov left no chance to Voltigeurs goaltender Olivier Rodrigue beaten top corner on blocker side with 9:10 remaining in first period.

Drummondville best scoring chance came from the stick of Ivan Mongo on three-on-one breakaway, his shot has been blocked by Etienne Montpetit with his pad, Going 9-in-40 for 22.5 percent Tigres got first chance with a man up but Drummondville killed the penalty to teammate Xavier Bernard.

In an offensive second period, six goals were scored, with Victoriaville leading 5-2 after forty minutes of play. Already leading 1-0 after first period, Tigres took two goals lead as Victoriaville center Justin Pare scored his third of the playoff, Chase Harwell and Daniel Cormier got the assists 2:28 into middle frame.

Drummondville took advantage of their power play cutting Tigres lead in half with Cronnor Bramwell beating Victoriaville Etienne Montpetit at 8:11. Victoriaville came back 12 seconds later regaining their two goal leads. A turnover by Drummondville netminder Rodrigue who gave the puck to Tigres center Simon Lafrance who made perfect pass to Ivan Kosorenkov scoring his third of the playoff.

Three consecutive penalties to Victoriaville gave Drummondville the opportunity to come back and brought them to one goal behind the Tigres for second times in the game. A shot by Nicolas Beaudin has been redirected by Joe Veleno giving no chance to Victoriaville netminder at 12:37.

Victoriaville replied with next two goals giving fans in Victoriaville to enjoy. Chase Harwell redirect a shot by teammate Felix Boivin on blue line giving back to the home team their two goal leads for third times in the game. Harwell goal came at 14:38.

Already been 0-in-2 with a man advantage Victoriaville took advantage of third power plays in the game scoring their fifth goal in the game with 1.6 second left on the clock in middle frame. A perfect tic-tac-toe left no chance to Drummondville goalie as former Quebec Remparts defenseman Vincent Lenoue scored his second of the playoff.

Trailing by three, Drummondville came out strong in third period but Victoriaville netminder closed the door for most of the periods until the last two goals scored by the Voltigeurs by Morgan Adam-Moisan at 18:36 and Ivan Mongo at 19:27.

Fortunately for the 3,159 fans in le Colisee Desjardins their favorites wins game three taking a 2-1 leads in second round series.

“We have had too many high and low in first two periods,” admitted Drummondville head coach Dominique Ducharme after the game. “We made mistakes that we usually didn’t do usually, we will correct it and we will be ready for Friday.”

“Are we look like a discourage team? Answered Ducharme after his team loose game three. We are confident team, we come here to win on Friday it will be 2-2 in the series. Guy are angry about themselves, they knew they did not executed well and it ended 5-4.” Our defense wasn’t perfect, what I didn’t like was we didn’t helped them (our defensemen), the first two goals we made two turnover at their own blue line, and it turned against us.” Continue Voltigeurs head coach Ducharme.

Courtesy for the head coach and players comments goes to Victoriaville radio station KIQ 97.5.

Game four of second round series between Drummondville and Victoriaville will be next Friday night.

No other series were on QMJHL schedule on Monday night.

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