Oct 16 Montreal Juniors Come on Strong and Hold On For A 3-2 Victory over Rouyn-Noranda Huskies

Before tonight's game, their first home game since October 3rd, the Montreal Juniors were on an unwanted streak. They hadn't scored a goal in their last 126 minutes and 59 seconds of play. But it only took 2:36 of the 1st period for Nick Layton to put that streak to an end and only 3 minutes and 14 seconds for Luke Adam to double the tally as the Juniors went on to defeat the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies by a score of 3-2. Don't let the one goal margin fool you, the game was much closer than that.

These 2 teams had very similar stats going into tonight's contest. Both had 12 points with Montreal at 6-6 and the Huskies at 5-5-2. Their penalty killing, as well as goals for and against were at par and the only real difference was that while on the power-play, Rouyn-Noranda out-performed the Juniors at 30.4 %  as compared to Montreal's anaemic 17.2%. This being an inter division game however, the only stat that really counted was in the win-loss column.

The Juniors would, in fact, begin building for that win with the two aforementioned goals, a result of Montreal always being one step ahead of the Huskies and forcing those same Huskies into undisciplined penalties as well some rough play. With less than a minute left in the 1st, Angelo Esposito, streaking down along the boards was laid out hard by Marc André Bourdon and he stayed on the ice for quite some time before being helped up and heading to the dressing room. He would be back to start the 2nd. In the ensuing seconds that followed, Matt Fillier paid Bourdon a visit, the two exchanged words and were sent off for 2 minutes to think about their actions, but the table was set for a physical second period.

Guillaume Asselin would score early in the second on a power-play goal, his 4th of the season was a seeing eye wrist shot from the point that Goalie Matthew Dopud never saw. Then a few moments later, Montreal's Chris Thorne caught Rouyn-Noranda's rookie star Sergey Ostapchuk with his head down crossing centre and cleanly laid him out. Ostapchuk, clutching his right arm, skated to the bench while Benoit Gervais sought retribution from Thorne. The two had a go at it and in the end, while both received fighting majors, Gervais was ejected for being the instigator. Then, some of Montreal's wheels started falling off.

After Jake Allen made an incredible last minute sweep of a trickling puck wanting to cross the goal line, his shut-out bid was shattered only seconds later when Jarrad Struthers let a slap-shot from the point that  beat Allen cleanly, glove side at 11:28. Montreal would get into penalty troubles of their own and only a few moments later, Benjamin Lecomte would shrink the lead to within 1. Were it not for Jake Allen however, this period could have seen the Huskies head to the locker room ahead by 1 instead of behind. Allen, with one second left in the period was forced to make the save of the game as he had to slide to his left side and stack the pads in order to rob Jeff Desjardins of the game tying goal while Juniors would end the 2nd and start the 3rd while down a man.

In what turned out to be a complete momentum turning 2nd, the Huskies picked up in the 3rd where they left off in the 2nd, totally dominating in the first 4 minutes of play, however, Montreal had the best opportunity seconds later when Angelo Esposito, hovering at centre, waiting for a breakaway pass, got that pass and would have been clear to face Dopud were it not for Nicolas Deslauriers hauling him down. Esposito would later get his penalty shot attempt stopped by Dopud but his play during the game would earn him 2nd star honors. The Huskies would go on to outshoot the Juniors 11-4 in the 3rd with Jake Allen up to the task, earning him the game's 1st star.

The Juniors would escape the ice with a narrow 3-2 victory which had coach Pascal Vincent lamenting that the team strayed away from the game-plan and would have to learn to play better with the lead and not be lured into taking bad penalties in the future.

This will not be more relevant than tomorrow when the juniors will play host to the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles. the Eagles are presently at 10-2, good enough for second place in the QMJHL standings. Puck drop is at 4:00 PM.

Tags: Angelo Esposito \ Guillaume Asselin. QMJHL \ LHJMQ \ Matt Fillier \ Montreal Junior \ Nick Layton \ October 17 2008 \ Rouyn-Noranda Huskies