QUEBEC CITY, P.Q. —Losing their first two meetings against Quebec, the third time was the good one for Victoriaville to win their first game against Quebec. Alexandre Goulet with his ninth of the regular season gave a 3-2 win over the Quebec Remparts to open a three games-in-three nights on the weekend.
2- Victoriaville goaltender James Povall made save against Quebec left winger Yanick Turcotte (17) photo courtesy of Jonathan L’Heureux of infosportquebec
Quebec struck first on their third shot on Tigres netminder. Making perfect pass from behind the net Louis Philip Cote found Dmitry Buynitskiy in the slot. Remparts right winger’s wrist shot beat Victoriaville goaltender James Povall on his right site with 15:12 remaining in first period.
Victoriaville tied the game with 2:45 left on clock. Screened Quebec goaltender Callum Booth has been beaten over left shoulder by a shot from Tigres right winger Antoine Lessard.
Playing without penalty called through half the game Quebec took advantage of their first power play opportunity following a penalty to Victoriaville forward Maxime Contois. Philipp Kurashev beat Tigres netminder with wrist shot at 13:50.
Victoriaville replied less than two minutes later. Working deep in Quebec zone Felix Lauzon beat Remparts netminder over his left shoulder at 15:35.
With the score tied 2-2 visitor took the lead for first time in the game inside first four minutes of the third periods. Alexandre Goulet slap shot beat Quebec goalie on his blocker side at 3:35 of the third period.
Quebec tried to come back but each time Tigres goalie found a way to make the save. Incident happened at the siren sound.
1- Victoriaville center James Phelan (18) ended his game with one assist photo courtesy of Jonathan L’Heureux of infosportquebec
Several players were involved as they dropped their gloves and fights. Matthew Boucher for Quebec and James Phelan of Victoriaville got major for fighting.
“It was a bit of everyone frustrations,” explained Quebec captain Matthew Boucher near the locker room after the game.
“It started with one of their guys who speared or slasher one of our guys I didn’t really saw, I was like on the side. Once it ended it degenerated after another guy came back so it made a big scrum so I would like to see what will come out of it.” Boucher continued.
As far as the game is concern the captain was the first to recognize his team did not came out like they wanted to.
“I don’t think we deserved a better outcome, we just gave us a better chance to win. Honestly like we said since the beginning of the year we have to come out stronger at home, we have to have better chance than we have had tonight. Callum has been very good tonight but we have to be better in front of him.” Quebec captain Matthew Boucher said.
Unable to keep the lead twice in the game Quebec saw their opponent coming back to finally wins for the first time against Quebec in three confrontations.
Quebec left winger Matthew Boucher (91) got major penalty for incident at the end of the game photo courtesy of Jonathan L’Heureux of infossportquebec
“It is the same story since the beginning of the year, we have tough time to come out at home. We talked about it after the first period, we have had two great shifts to begin, it gave us a goal but we have to be better to keep that lead.” Quebec left winger Boucher said.
On Victoriaville side the Tigres head coach Louis Robitaille didn’t really saw what happened at the end so he wouldn’t really comment on the incident beside saying “I will have to see the clip but what I saw was guys seemed to be in a scrum to congratulate the goalie but I did not see what happened after.” Victoriaville head coach Louis Robitaille said.
“He said good game,” answered Tigres head coach Robitaille when asked if the Quebec head coach Philippe Boucher said anything to him. “I didn’t know what really happened at the end but we didn’t want anything like that at the end, referee did great job,” admitted Victoriaville head coach Robitaille.
Quebec goaltender Callum Booth played solid game even if his team lose at the end photo courtesy of Janathan L’Heureux of infosportquebec
“I like the way we played in offensive zone, finally we drove the net, we have had great possession times in offensive zone in first two periods, it gave us chance to generate scoring chances, playing four lines. We have to do a copy and paste on that side. That is what we practiced, we didn’t have had lots of practice in last month. This week we emphases on that and players responded very well.”
“Victo (Victoriaville) played better than us,” admitted Quebec head coach Philippe Boucher. “We played well in the beginning, we had great energy but after that we complicated our existence, we tried to be too cute, puck didn’t came out of our zone and we complicated our life when we tried to make play when it didn’t had any.
As far as the event at the end of the game Remparts head coach said, “It was a team that want to go to see his goalie, guys on the ice were involved with ours, we kept our guys on the bench but that was things happening. I didn’t have anything to say to Louis (Robitaille) it was to his assistant to keep his mouth shut. He didn’t have anything to say, I suggest to the assistant to look the video and counting the number of white, and looking to what happened. He didn’t had anything to say.”
Quebec will end the six games home stretch on Sunday afternoon hosting another arch-rival Chicoutimi Sagueneens.
Seven other games were on QMJHL schedule on Friday night
Charlottetown 5 vs. Cape Breton 4 (overtime)
Halifax 5 vs. Moncton 1
Saint John 6 vs. Acadie-Bathurst 3
Baie-Comeau 3 vs. Sherbrooke 7
Blainville-Boisbriand 6 vs. Rouyn-Noranda 5
Gatineau 2 vs. Shawinigan 6
Rimouski 2 vs. Val-d’Or 4
Contact the author at: serge.poulin@prohockeynews.com
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