On the eve of the second round in the QMJHL, which will begin Friday at the four corners of the circuit, the question that is on everyone’s lips is the following: should the Drakkar de Baie-Comeau prepare to face the Remparts? de Québec rather than already thinking about his golf season?
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In the seventh and final game against the Moncton Wildcats on Tuesday, the Drakkar believed they had earned their ticket to the second round when Charles-Thomas Larochelle pushed a puck past goaltender Jacob Steinman. The official Mario Maillet had however judged that the goal was not good and, after video review, the call had been maintained.
The controversial decision sparked outrage on social media. The son of the head coach of the Drakkar Jean-François Grégoire, Jérémy, was one of them.
With this replay, however, it was impossible to accurately determine whether the Maillet official had made the right or wrong decision. Was the puck pinned under Steinman when Larochelle pushed it and in doing so obstructed the goaltender?
However, another shot, captured by the Radio-Canada camera and broadcast by colleague François Le Blanc on Wednesday, once again aroused the ire of Drakkar fans who maintain that Larochelle did not disturb the work of the keeper Steinman.
A respected hockey man in the QMJHL mentioned this in Log, Wednesday: “It’s a goal. It’s not even close. It’s really sad for the Drakkar. Can you imagine if that had happened to a team like Quebec or Rimouski? It would have exploded!”
In the end, it won’t change anything. The Wildcats are preparing to face the Halifax Mooseheads in the second round, and they deserved it. The series against the Drakkar was hotly contested and five out of seven games went to overtime, a QMJHL record.
But this decision by Mario Maillet has not finished making people talk.