QMJHL - Montreal Juniors Battle Hard and Overtake the Gatineau Olympiques 4-3
The game was not even a minute old before Gatineau's leading goal-getter Jean-Philip Chabot put his 31st of the season past Jake Allen. Not quite the start the juniors were looking for but the Olympiques showed why they were leading in the West Division by 11 points by getting on the board early and tried to dictate the play. But the Montreal Juniors, missing key players such as Toni Ritter, Luke Adam and Angelo Esposito, the latter 2 for the rest of the season, would not give up so easily.
Led by captain Matt Fillier, the Juniors killed off a penalty and moments later were on a power-play of their own when team leading scorer Nick Layton skated onto the Gatineau left wing and centred a perfect pass in the slot which Fillier one-timed past Maxime Clermont at 10:12. The duo would combine only moments later when Filllier, winning a battle for the puck in the Gatineau zone, found Layton on the right point. Layton let a wrist shot go that found it's way past Clermont, un-deflected, to put the Juniors in the lead. Penalties would prove costly for the Olympiques as Matt Fillier stuffed another puck through the pads of Clermont with 1 second left in the penalty at 15:21. Layton figured once again in the scoring. The period would end Montreal 3, Gatineau 1.
It took Gatineau 2:03 seconds into the second to reduce the deficit to 1 with a video reviewed goal. When all was said and done, Joshua Domingues had poked the puck past Jake Allen's pads in a play that some felt should have been whistled down. Penalties ended up costing the Juniors as well, when, at 12:32, Maxime Mallette rifled a seeing eye shot from the left point past Jake Allen to tie the game at 3, setting the stage for the third period.
Early period goals being the trend in the 1st and 2nd periods, Montreal was not about to break traditon. 1:05 into the 3rd, Jérémy Gouchie picked up a clearing attempt in the neutral zone, skated down the right side of the ice and wired a low shot that hit a goalpost and in to put the Juniors ahead for the second time tonight. Gatineau would come on strong for the rest of the period, outshooting Montreal 21-6, even pulling their netminder for the extra attacker with less than a minute left in the period, but Jake Allen and the Juniors managed to shut their division rivals down. Final score, Montreal 4, Gatineau 3.
Montreal now heads out on a 4 game road trip with their next challenge being the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles on Wednesday the 18th.
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