Sep 12 First Game Of 2009 Season a Tough Loss for Juniors

With starting goaltenders Jake Allen and Jean-François Bérubé away at their respective NHL training camps, head coach Pascal Vincent looked to rookie netminder Étienne Marcoux to hold the fort during Montreal's first 2009-10 regular season game against the Cataractes in Shawinigan last night.

Although Montreal outshot the Cataractes by a slim margin 36-34, Shawinigan, with nearly half their roster filled by a rookie line-up, were able to come from behind twice and go on to defeat the Juniors 5-4 in front of a sold out home crowd.

Young Juniors sniper Guillaume Asselin was held to no shots in his début as a veteran, however first round pick, defenceman  Xavier Ouellet figured in the scoring with an assist.

Please read on for the complete Juniors game recap.

Montreal, September 11^th, 2009 – Intense weeks of training, tangible excitement to the kickoff of the Juniors’ second season in the ‘Q’ and a winning record in the preseason, Pascal Vincent’s Montreal Juniors, rookies and veterans, were ready to tie up their skate to start the 2009-2010 season. Before playing in front of their fans, the Montreal Juniors must hit the road to play in Shawinigan, Victoriaville, Val-d’Or and Rouyn-Noranda. Friday night was their first stop in a sold out Centre Bionest. The preparation is done, the season flurry has now begun. The final score: 5-4 for Shawinigan.

In the first, Montreal’s veteran Jérémy Gouchie found the net for his first regular season goal this year, assists go to captain Nicolas Chouinard and #28 Pier-Antoine Dion. Shawinigan scored three minutes later. Cats’ forward Christophe Tremblay got his first unassisted goal of the regular season. It was 1-1- after 20 minutes.

The second frame belonged to Shawinigan. #36 Pierrick Martel and #55 Anthony Brockman foiled Montreal’s goalie to bring the score to 3-1. Belarus’ Evgeny Solomonov gave some energy back to Montreal when he got to the back of the net, his first regular season goal in North America.

In the last twenty minutes, rookie Trevor Parkes and teammate Pier-Antoine Dion, from the Montreal Juniors, each scored within 36 seconds. Cataractes Ryan Lagacé and Tommy Tremblay did the same later in the frame. They gave the win to Shawinigan with less than a minute left.

Montreal’s goaltender Etienne Marcoux, who was playing his first game in the QMJHL, made 29 saves. Gabriel Girard, in the other net, stopped 32 shots.

The Montreal Juniors will now visit Victoriaville, Val-d’Or and Rouyn-Noranda (on September, 13^th, 18^th and 19^th) before they face off against the Lewiston MAINEiacs for the home opening game at the Verdun Auditorium on Friday, September 25^th, at 7:35 pm.

Tags: etienne Marcoux \ Evgeny Solomonov \ Jake Allen \ Jean-Francois Berube \ Jérémy Gouchie \ Pascal Vincent \ Pier-Antoine Dion \ Shawinigan Cataractes \ Trevor Parkes \ Xavier Ouellet