Victoriaville win second games at home

QUEBEC CITY, P.Q. — Leading series 2-1, Victoriaville pushed their opponent back to the wall winning game four at home 3-1 taking by the same fact an important lead in the QMJHL second round series. Vitalii Abramov with game winning goal and Jimmy Huntington with the insurance goal seal the Drummondville fate in game four on Friday night.

“Yeah but we will built our momentum on that victory,” Victoriaville head coach Louis Robitaille said. “In winning a game in Drummondville, we have to make sure we have to win game at home that is what we made. We will go one game at the time. You said it was a defensive kind of game but I found our shots were quality one, Their goaltender Rodrigue made big saves, in first we hit three other goalpost, we have created good scoring chances. We have to capitalize on those quality chances in the beginning.”

“We let them back into the game, we missed big chances too but what I like the most is our resilience as a group we were still concentrated on our task and in critical times Montpetit made key saves. Tigres head coach Robitaille said.

In an offensive first period three goals were scored. For the fourth times in the series Victoriaville scored first goal in the game 31 seconds in. Best scoring leaders on Tigres team Chase Harwell scored his fourth of the playoff beating Drummondville goaltender Olivier Rodrigue.

Drummondville tied the game 4:10 later. Pavel Koltygin beat Victoriaville goaltender Etienne Montpetit top shelve on glove side at 4:41.

Victoriaville regained the lead on great pass by Maxime Comtois to Vitalii Abramov on Tigres fifth shots on goal with 14:40 remaining in the opening period. Victoriaville leads the shots on goal category 9-4.

Beneficiaries of two power plays chance in opening period, Tigres got two others in middle frame without been able to get the puck behind Rofrigue. 12 of Victoriaville 15 shots on net were great scoring opportunities but Voltigeurs netminders made key saves preventing Tigres to add to their lead. Drummondville only shot nine times on Montpetit.

Victoriaville took a two goals lead with 11:49 remaining in third period with third goals of the playoff by Jimmy Huntington completing great play by Simon Lafrance and Justin Pare.

“Lots of pressure off my shoulder,” answered the author of Victoriaville third goal Jimmy Huntington. “Last goal I scored was in Saint John in the Maritime. But at the end we won that is what is what it count. It gave us some confidence, we back-off but we chipped the puck, we played well with the lead.”

Pulling their starting goaltender with less than two minutes remaining, Drummondville tried to cut Victoriaville lead to one goal, instead Victoriaville thought they had taken a three goal leads scoring a fourth goal with Voltigeurs net empty. But instead the goal has been wave-off due to an offside at the blue line.

For all Drummondville players even if they trailed 3-1 in the series they still are confident they can win next one on up-coming Sunday in their building since the series return to Drummondville.

“Details made difference in the series, we will have to work on our way we begin the game that will be an important thing to change.” Drummondville defenseman Marc-Olivier Duquette.

“In all game we trailed in the beginning that is a thing that hurt us a lot. We have to come back to little details, we are in control of the way we played, we are guilty for the way we lose the game, we didn’t played in our identity, game seven happen every year, nobody give it up, we are a character team.” Continue Duquette.

“Game are really tight at this time of year, little mistake can be costly,” admitted Drummondville forward Yvan Mongo. “We can say it played against us,” continued Mongo when asked about the way his team began games. At the end the only thing we should concentrate on is the next game. We will be back home and we will try to win next one. After that we will see what happen.”

“For sure,” answered Drummondville head coach Dominique Ducharme, when he was asked if the game had been determined by some little details. “I didn’t like the way we began the first period, Things we talked that we did not executed well under pressure, I think that is what made the difference in the game.”

“Maybe here, but in game number two at home we began the game well but we didn’t scored, all is in the way we do things. We didn’t dealt well with the pressure, Tigres scored but we didn’t react the way we should have, we took bad decisions costing us goals.”

Game five of second round series will be this Sunday in Drummondville.

One other second series was on QMJHL schedule on Friday

Blainville-Boisbriand 8 vs. Moncton 3 (Blainville-Boisbriand Win series 4-1)

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