QUEBEC CITY P.Q. — With a 3-2 win over the Shawinigan Cataractes in an exciting Game 7 of the QMJHL finals, the Drummondville Voltigeurs got the last word by earning the last ticket to the Memorial Cup as the QMJHL President Cup champion. Yannick Riendeau (two goals, one assist), and Mike Hoffman (one goal, one assist) played key roles offensively in Drummondville’s victory in front of their 4,077 ecstatic fans.
QMJHL Commissioner Gilles Courteau hands the President Cup to Drummondville captain Marc-Olivier Vachon -photo courtesy of the QMJHL and Ghyslain Bergeron
Shawinigan stepped onto the ice in the opening period and tried to set the tempo of the game by being aggressive with the puck and taking shots every chance they got. With less than five minutes gone in the first period, the Cataractes already had four shots on Drummondville goaltender Marco Cousineau, but the Voltigeurs had only two on Shawinigan’s Gabriel Girard. Cousineau’s best save was a pad save on Cataractes forward Philippe Levebvre. Shawinigan had two power play opportunities to get the first goal of the game but was unable to do so thanks to the Voltigeues netminder. Usually when a team is unsuccessful on the power play, the other team often takes advantage of the situation and takes the lead. That’s exactly what happened when Riendeau went in on a three-on-one breakaway and received a nice pass from Mike Hoffman to score his first goal of the night being Girard low glove side at 10:38 of the opening period to give Drummondville a 1-0. Guy Boucher team added their second goal of the game with their only power play opportunity in the first period when Hoffman’s wrist shot beat Girard from just inside the blueline at 14:52. Unable to get on board in first period with a man advantage, the Cataractes didn’t miss on their first opportunity in the second period when veteran defenseman Alex Grant’s wrist shot beat Cousineau high on his glove side with only 1:20 gone in the period. Drummondville regained their two goal lead with Riendeau’s second goal of the game 1:32 later. Shawinigan once again cut Drummondville’s lead to a goal when Matthew Pistilli’s scored his 13th goal of the playoffs at 5:11 and Drummondvile led 3-2 after forty minutes of play. Both teams came back in the third period and gave all they had. Shawinigan tried to get the equalizer and had some very good chances, especially with less than five minutes remaining, but again Cousineau did what needed to be done by making save after save to preserve his teams lead until the final horn sounded to announce the end of the game. On the other side of the ice, the young 17 year old Girard, who was thrown in the melee to replace Timo Pielmeier after Game 4, played a very solid game and make some key saves of his own to keep his team in the game. Girard made 44 saves on 47 shots, 22 of of them were considered dangerous shots. Drummondville head coach Guy Boucher was very happy of his teams performance, especially the way his team answer the challenge after losing Christopher DiDominico. “It was like that since the first game,” said Guy Boucher “The first four games were won by only one goal. I told you the series might go seven.” “I will be frank with you here. When he had his injury, I told him that he can’t skate with us anymore. He went to war with us, so we going to bring him over our shoulders if we have to until the end. It was the theme in our dressing room after we lost him.” When talking about his goaltenders performance, Boucher didn’t hesitate to praise him.
“He was like that the whole year, he wasn’t happy after last game and he was extraordinary tonight. It wasn’t a big surprise for me.”
Another player who played an important role in the series was a free agent signee by the Boston Bruins, Yannick Riendeau.
“We have all kind of players in our lineup that play different roles, but Riendeau (with 28 goals in the playoffs) was simply extraordinary. We were happy because we were told at the beginning of the year that we tried to get him a professional contract and maybe a championship. So for him and guys like (Danny) Masse, it’s very special.”
Riendeau to no ones surprise earned the Guy Lafleur trophy as the Most Valuable Player in the QMJHL playoffs. He ended the playoffs with 29 goals and 23 assists for 52 points.
Shots on goal: Shawinigan 47, Drummondville 27
Power plays: Shawinigan 1-4, Drummondville 1-3
Three stars of the game: 1-Yannick Riendeau (Drum.) 2- Danny Masse (Drum.) 3-Patrick Prokop (Drum.)
Contact the author at: serge.poulin@prohockeynews.com
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