Montreal Juniors Win Again Shutting Out Gatineau 5-0
While the Juniors got off to a shaky start, going 1-3 in their first 4 games, the return of such key players as Goaltender Jake Allen, team captain Matt Fillier, TJ Brennan and Luke Adam has added the missing ingredients that make for a winning recipe.
The Juniors rolled over the Gatineau Olympiques, the team that seemingly had their number, taking 3 of 4 in the pre-season, by a score of 5-0 with Allen earning his first shutout as a Montreal junior in his second regular season game.
Can this team get any better? Missing from the line-up since the season's start and making his regular season debut this Friday against the Acadie-Bathurst Titans is Angelo Esposito.
Read on for the official Juniors press release on the Gatineau post-game report.
Montreal, September 28, 2008 - The Juniors faced their pre-season rivals, the Gatineau Olympiques, for their first regular season encounter this afternoon at the Verdun Auditorium. Anticipated to be a heated contest due to the four pre-season encounters these teams endured, Montreal was a step ahead of the Olympiques all game long. After four games in the pre-season, in which Gatineau won 3 (2 decided by shootout), the Juniors were in need to put up a strong performance.
Jake Allen and his team-mates made sure not to disappoint the raucous home fans (2880 showed up on this occasion!). Montreal Juniors 5 - Gatineau Olympiques 0 Montreal didn’t wait long to erase any impressions that they were a stronger team than the Olympiques. The Juniors opened the game firing on all cylinders. Gatineau, strong in the first 10 minutes of the game, found themselves under fire as Juniors captain Matt Fillier got Montreal on the board first, scoring a power play goal at the 13:54 mark.
Grabbing the early lead, Montreal pressed on firing 11 shots on Gatineau netminder Maxime Clermont, scoring two more times in the final 2 minutes of the first, as Alex Wall and Taylor MacDougall staked the Juniors to a 3-0 lead after one. Jake Allen continued his strong performance following the Juniors Friday night win, stopping all 11 shots by the Olympiques.
No goals were scored in a second period that was much tighter as the Olympiques tried to clamp down on the Juniors explosive offense. Gatineau limited the Juniors to only 6 shots in the period, yet could not capitalize on any of their 9 shots fired towards Jake Allen. Gatineau pressed hard, too hard, taking 3 penalties and allowing a potent Montreal power play the opportunity to add to their lead. Fortunately for Gatineau, the Olympiqes played a much stronger period in front of Marc-Antoine Gélinas, who came into replace netminder Maxime Clermont for the second period, stopping the Juniors in all 3 power play attempts.
The strong emotions from pre-season boiled over in the third as the two teams accumulated 21 penalty minutes. Although the two teams provoked each other all period, only Montreal was able to get on the board. Pier-Antoine Dion got his 3rd of the season at 7:29 of the third, all but putting the game out of reach for the Olympiques. Sammy Grenache added an extra shorthanded goal for insurance with only 6:43 remaining. Gatineau fought hard, shooting another 11 shots at Allen, but Montreal’s talented goaltender was impervious, making a total of 31 saves, in only his second start, for his first shutout as a member of the Juniors.
With the 5-0 “blanchissage” of the Olympiques, Montreal now brings their regular season record back to .500, 3 wins and 3 losses. Montreal has scored 22 goals in their first 6 games while allowing only 19. The Juniors have the week off before they face Acadie-Bathurst next Friday, October 3rd at the Verdun Auditorium at 7:30pm. This will be Juniors last home game for 2 weeks as they hit the road for a 5 game road trip.
To know more on the Montreal Juniors The QMJHL is finally returning to Montreal in September 2008, after a five year absence. As an established team and legitimate MasterCard Memorial Cup contender, the Montreal Juniors rely on a strong core of young, talented players and a group of dedicated coaches with Pascal Vincent as their leader. Recently renovated for the team, the Verdun Auditorium will host the local games where excitement, passion and energy will meet!
photo by Amanda Stein
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