Turnovers, indiscipline and much more convincing Mooseheads than the day before put an end to the invincibility of the Remparts in the playoffs, Saturday in a Videotron Center which once again had a full house.
The QMJHL final series is now tied at 1-1, thanks to Halifax’s 6-3 victory.
However, the proteges of Patrick Roy had started the confrontation in force, surely inflated to block after their match on Friday, in which they had triumphed 5 to 1.
Marked player in this series, Zachary Bolduc quickly made Jake Furlong (and the Mooseheads) pay, who had been chased for having retained him. Number 15, author of 50 goals in the regular season, beat goalkeeper Mathis Rousseau with a powerful shot at the face-off circle, halfway through the first.
Then, some six minutes later, James Malatesta shook an already animated Videotron Center when he in turn beat Rousseau of the Mooseheads with a lively throw.
But the party was short-lived for the 18,259 spectators who had come to encourage the “Red Devils”, hitherto undefeated in their first 13 playoff games, and who were riding a streak of 21 victories, regular season included.
“We didn’t play a good game. What their coach blamed his players for [de ne pas avoir travaillé assez fort, vendredi]it was our turn”, analyzed Patrick Roy.
A crucial goal at the end of the period
In the opposing clan, Sylvain Favreau was happy to have seen his players roll up their sleeves in the second game of the final. “It definitely made the difference. It’s so crucial, the level of competition, when you play against a talented and disciplined team, ”he said.
It was Alexandre Doucet who, at the end of the first period, completely changed the look of this game when he reduced the gap to one goal while Pier-Olivier Roy was sitting in the penalty box.
Because this net was a taste of what the second engagement was going to look like, by far the worst disputed by the Remparts for a long time.
He did a lot of damage in Quebec… and a lot of good in Halifax, according to the players interviewed after the game, as well as their coaches.
“It sure helped,” said Doucet, who finished the game with four points. Goals in the first or last seconds, it changes the look of a match.
“A goal at the end of the period always hurts more,” confirmed Bolduc. But a meeting lasts 60 minutes. We can’t stay there. We will learn from that and it is something that will not happen again.
‘Too many punishments’
Invigorated, Halifax then took full advantage of Quebec’s largesse: in turn, Zachary L’Heureux, from an impossible angle, Furlong, Brady Schultz and Josh Lawrence silenced the Remparts supporters, who suddenly no longer had a big -thing to get your teeth into…except for the half-and-half amount which was climbing again at a staggering rate, eventually reaching $279,382.
“I think we took too many punishments. [Halifax a marqué deux fois en avantage numérique], raised Malatesta. It’s a talented team, they made us pay for it. We didn’t manage the puck as well as in the first game either. […] We shot ourselves in the foot.”
It had been a while since we had seen William Rousseau so generous, but in defense of the local goalkeeper, the gap could have been even greater, had it not been for a few saves in extremis.
Photo Didier Desbusschere
Justin Robidas, with 4:37 left in the third, narrowed the gap slightly, sneaking to the Mooseheads goal and then slotting the puck into the top of the net. But with so little time left on the clock, the slope was too steep for Quebec.
Doucet, with his second goal of the game, finally sealed the fate of the Remparts in an empty net.
“It’s up to us to take it back”
All the same, the head coach of the “Red Devils” felt that his players sent a good message at the end of the game, in anticipation of Tuesday’s clash in Halifax.
“The match we are going to play there does not start on Tuesday. He started in the third period, pointed out Patrick Roy. We started preparing for this match at that time. We wanted to break their momentum. I think in the third, we played really well.
Photo Didier Desbusschere
“We lost the advantage of the ice, it’s up to us to take it back there, he added. We would have liked to remain undefeated until the end, but unfortunately we are up against a good team. They still played a good game. But despite the fact that we were not good, we could have scored goals at times.
“The winning streak that we had, I think it just gave us confidence. It’s not a defeat like this that will take it away from us,” assured Bolduc.
► Tickets for the fifth game, which will be played Friday at the Videotron Center, will go on sale Sunday at noon.
► Injured on Friday, defender Vsevolod Komarov was already back in the formation of the Remparts. Captain Théo Rochette did not finish the game. Patrick Roy had no details to share on the attacker’s state of health.
► Jordan Dumais, the QMJHL’s leading scorer in the regular season, was once again absent for the Mooseheads.