Juniors 2 Cataractes 5 in First Pre-Season Game
While both veteran goaltenders Jake Allen and Jean-François Bérubé were joined by most other vets in the stands, the rest of the Montreal Juniors squad faced off against a similar scenario with the Shawinigan Cataractes. Chris Thorne, Samuel Grenache and Vincent Bourgeois were the only veterans dressed for this game and were surrounded by young hopefuls, trying to crack the lineup.
Xavier Ouellet, the Juniors 1st round pick, who joined the Juniors after a span where he was considering not playing in the "Q" at all, was held to 1 shot during the game. These same two teams will do it all over again this Sunday in Shawinigan as the Juniors will play 4 more pre-season games, before which they are expected to announce the final 2009-10 roster.
Read on for the official Juniors game recap.
Montreal, August 21st, 2009 –The Montreal Juniors kicked off their 2009-2010 exhibition season at Jean Béliveau Arena in Longueuil, where they were handed a 5-2 loss in what proved to be an intense opener for both teams. With both lineups full of rookies trying to land a spot on the roster of their respective clubs, each spot of ice was fought over in a tooth-and-nail battle that gave both coaches and fans a hint of what to expect and clues as to who to look out for in upcoming preseason contests.
The Cataractes opened the scoring at 17:41 of the first period, capitalizing on a Marc-André Levasseur penalty with an unassisted marker by Joé Dubé. Shawinigan outshot Montreal 12-5 in the first twenty minutes.
The Cataractes added to their lead with a goal by Tommy Giroux at the halfway mark of the second period. The Juniors, however, would erase this advantage by scoring two quick goals before the end of the frame. Anthony Courcelles and Hugo Roux were credited with the tallies.
The final period saw George Dunn of the Juniors and Philippe Pépin of the Cataractes drop the gloves in a heated contest that had carried over from late in the second period, when both had been assessed delay-of-game penalties for their previous fight attempt. Meanwhile, with 15:24 left in the game, Shawinigan would move ahead 3-2 with a goal by Anthony Brockman. Seventeen seconds later, Patrick Langlois would increase this margin before his teammate Pierrick Martel would add an insurance goal with less than a minute left.
Two of Montreal’s 2009 draft choices were between the pipes for this matchup. Paul Bourbeau, for his part, stopped all but 2 shots in 17 attempts. His predecessor, Étienne Marcoux, stopped 16 of 18 shots. The Juniors’ offense managed 23 shots against their opposition.
The Juniors will have a chance to redeem themselves this Sunday, August 23rd at Shawinigan’s Centre Bionest for exhibition game #2, before moving on to their rivals from Gatineau in a game against the Olympiques next Friday, August 28th as part of a home-and-home series that will wrap up in Valleyfield the following day.
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