Aug 31 Montreal Juniors Played 1st Exhibition Game At Home in 3-2 Loss to Gatineau

While the final roster is still not set, and with some players still on the bubble as far as making the team, the Montreal Juniors took to the ice at Verdun Auditorium where they faced off against the Gatineau Olympiques in the second of 4 pre-season games these two teams will play before the Juniors' regular season kicks off against the Quebec Ramparts on September 12th.

While it was essentially two different rosters that laced up their skates in each of the home-and-away games played, all Juniors members from both squads learned a valuable lesson: Playing "catch-up" is harder than playing "keep-away". In the same lesson, they also learned that with hard work and perseverance, anything is possible.

The Juniors were in Gatineau Sunday evening and saw themselves behind 5-1 in the 3rd period. Enter the hard work and perseverance of which I spoke previously and Montreal managed to wipe out that deficit and tie the game up. The Junior would go on to lose this game in a shootout, but what a game to build on.

Despite it being the Monday portion of a long weekend, sunny and 31 degrees as well as this being an exhibition Junior league hockey game, the Juniors came home to Verdun Auditorium where they were met by 2124 fans with 724 of them being walk-up ticket buyers who were anxious to cheer on their team.

While the first period left much to be desired as far as action goes, it sure was nice to be so close to the ice during a good quality hockey game, and the Verdun Auditorium leaves all with the feeling they have the best seat in the house. The Junior would get another taste of playing from behind when, while shorthanded due to a hooking call on Defenseman Keven Drouin, the Olympiques took the lead at 15:21 on a goal by Olivier Crouteau. The goal had not even been announced yet, when  what was to be the 1st of many skirmishes broke out, the culprits being Travis Stacey from Gatineau and Samuel Granache from Montreal. The 2nd period began as the 1st ended, with another fight. This time, it was Gatineau's Steven Delisle who took offense to Montreal's Henrick Lavoie's check from behind and the gloves came off. Unfortunately for the Juniors, this sparked the Olympique's offense as at 3:08, Alexandre Touchette put it top shelf on Junior goaltender Jean Sebastien Lefin on a nice feed from Nicholas Mayer.

It is to note that two players who were also on their game this evening were Montreal's Luke Adam and Gatienau's Goalie Maxime Clermont. Adam, recently drafted 44th overall by the Buffalo Sabres, was part of a 3 on 1 as well as a nice individual play that saw him on a partial break alone in front of Clermont, but Clermont was solid through his 3o 0 minutes of ice time.

The 3rd period is thus far proving to be a charm for the Juniors as they took the ice down by 2, it took them 7:12 to score their first goal of the game, a working man's stuff-in at the front of the net in a scrum by Maxime Plante. The 2000+ fans had exactly 47 seconds to enjoy this goal, as, at 8:09 Gatineau restored their 2 goal lead. On a bad clearing play by Montreal in their own end, Christian Ouellette-Martel picked up the puck at the point and let a wrister go that hit the top corner.

The Junior would tally another one at 9:27on the highlight goal of the night when Montreal defenseman Vincent Bourgeois found Christopher Smith splitting the defense as he strode in on the Gatineau goalie and just when he looked like he was running out of real estate, puts a backhander in the back of the net, surprising all but himself with that one. The junior would pull their netminder with 1 minute left in the game but would come up empty and go on to lose this contest 3-2.

The Juniors went 1 for 8 on the power-play, an area that they will surely need to improve on if they want more success going forward, however, let's take this with a grain of salt, as noticeably missing from the roster, among other players, were, perhaps Atlanta bound Angelo Esposito and 15 year old Guillaume Asselin (who tallied 2 goals the evening before)

Coach Pascal Vincent, who was not behind the bench for this match, but rather evaluating from the bleachers, said that it is less a question of evaluating the team's performance, but more-so the individuals, as he is going to have to make some difficult decisions concerning players futures in the coming days.

The Junior plays Gatineau 2 more times in pre-season play on Friday the 5th in Gatineau and Sunday the 7th back home in Verdun. The final version of this Montreal Junior team should be announced by then as their first regular season contest will be against the team that traded Angelo Esposito to Montreal in the off-season; Patrick Roy's Quebec Ramparts.

It's going to be a long season, and I can't wait!

Tags: Angelo Esposito \ Gatineau Olympiques \ LHJMQ \ Luke Adam \ Montreal Junior \ Pascal Vincent \ QMJHL \ Verdun Auditorium