Mar 02 QMJHL - Montreal Juniors Defeat Chicoutimi Saguenéens 4-2

The Montreal Juniors, or what is left of them after numerous consecutive injuries, took to the ice for game one of a home and away series against the Chicoutimi Saguenéens tonight in Verdun. Not only did coach Pascal Vincent have to react when regulars like Angelo Esposito, Luke Adam and Toni Ritter were put on the indefinite IR list, but at the end of last Sunday's pounding contest against the Lewiston MAINEiacs, the Juniors found themselves down a few more men when Vincent Bourgeois and Frank Grzeszczak fell in the line of duty. Captain Matt Fillier who was also expected to miss this game due to injury, showed his true grit by playing yet again tonight. Many, many shots later, and after a hard fought battle, the most injured Montreal Juniors pulled together and gave the 3251 fans a great show as well as a 4-2 victory. 

Replacing the recently injured would be Anthony Courcelles and Félix-Antoine Poulin. Stat to stat, the Saguenéens were slightly better than the Juniors as far as power-play, penalty kill and goals for, but as was the case with many other teams, the Juniors had them beat in the goals against category thanks to Jake Allen who got the call between the pipes tonight. Despite the slanted statistics, The Juniors were still 12 points ahead of Chicoutimi in the overall QMJHL standings. Montreal had some momentum on their side after the recent 7-2 victory while Chicoutimi would look to rebound after their last stint that saw them go down to the Quebec Remparts 8-1.

Pascal Vincent's gameplan had to consist of puck possession and getting as many pucks on net as possible as the Juniors outshot Chicoutimi 21-11 in the first period. Both goaltenders had to be sharp despite the shot tally so that their teams could compete. Both teams had two cracks at the power-play and it wasn't until the 17:40 mark with Montreal on their second power-play that rookie Guillamue Asselin potted his 17th as he corralled a won face-off in the Chicoutimi zone and wristed his shot beating François Levesque, glove hand side. It had been quite a while that the fans had witnessed the Juniors outshooting their opponent by such a wide margin. The period ended with Montreal up 1-0 and the near capacity crowd wanting more.

Despite Montreal coming on strong in the first 5 minutes of the second, it would be Chicoutimi who would tie the game at 5:01 when Mathieu Tousignant, the teams leading scorer, was fed a pass in the slot which he one timed past a helpless Jake Allen. Tousignant would be robbed only moments later by Allen who was called on repeatedly following the Saguenéens first goal. Five minutes later, and just after the Juniors hit a goalpost, in the ensuing clearing opportunity, Jacob Lagacé skated down the right boards and let a shot go just inside the Juniors blue line that Jake Allen should have caught, but didn't. Lagacé, a draft pick of the Buffalo Sabres, put hisa team ahead  2-1 with his 31st of the season. The Juniors would be fruitless in their subsequent power-play attempt and also put up a flurry of opportunities in the dying seconds of the period, but the score would remain the same heading into the third frame.

Montreal would make a game of it being aggressive on the puck from the opening face-off and this would pay off at 4:25 when Pier-Antoine Dion would one-time a swift pass from Nick Layton into the slot to put it five-hole on Levesque. In a mirror image of the second period, the Juniors would feed off this goal and would force Levesque to make a few good saves to keep the game tied. The Juniors continued their high energy play to the point of drawing a penalty and before the Saguenéens could touch the puck, the Juniors set up in the offensive zone and with Jake Allen off for the extra attacker, Matthew Brenton was able to pick up the rebound from a slapshot from the point and stuffed it into the Chicoutimi goal to restore Montreal's lead. With less than 2 minutes to go in the game, Montreal was in complete puck control and again drew a penalty, allowing the Juniors to calmly set up their power-play and with that came the final nail in Chicoutimi's coffin with Louis-Marc Aubry's 4th of the year.

The game would end 4-2 with Montreal outshooting Chicoutimi by an amazing mark of 52-24 and despite a rather depleted line-up. One can only hope they can maintain this pace while wounds heal and only a handful of games left in the regular season. The Juniors now end their week with a trip back to Chicoutimi for the rematch on Friday.

Tags: Chicoutimi Sagueneens \ Jake Allen \ LHJMQ \ Louis-Marc Aubry \ Matthew Brenton \ Montreal juniors \ QMJHL \ TJ Brennan