Dec 18 QMJHL- Montreal Juniors Defeat Rimouski Océanic 4-2 in Last Home Game of 2008

The Montreal Juniors gave themselves and the 3,277 fans in attendance an early Christmas present tonight as the hosted the Rimouski Océanic. They won their fourth game in a row for the longest winning streak of the season. Montreal's hard work ethic and Rimouski's never say die attitude made it an exciting hard hitting affair from buzzer to buzzer.

Montreal would get an early scare as T-J Brennan was rammed into the boards from behind in the early moments of the 1st period and skated off to the dressing room with what looked like a possible shoulder injury. To his defense came captain Matt Fillier, challenging his assailant Frédéric Desrochers and the two would head to the box with Montreal on the power-play. Montreal would not be able to capitalize on that or the subsequent 2 other man-advantages, however, they would end the first period up by one on Luke Adam's 14th of the season as he skated in on Océanic netminder Maxim Gougeon and let an ankle high shot rip that was unseen by Gougeon as he was screened by Montreal's leading point getter, Nick Layton who also figured in the scoring.

Rimouski would come out blazing in the second, needing only 41 seconds to tie it up on a goal by Sebastien Piché. Many Océanic players would need to step it up a notch with as many as 7 injured players as well as centreman Patrice Cormier representing team Canada in the World Juniors. The Montreal juniors, however, were missing Angelo Esposito who was also on Pat Quinn's roster and would get the go ahead goal 19 seconds later. This time it was Benjamin Rubin deflecting a nice shot by Alex wall past a helpless Gougeon . It would be Rimouski that would end the period on a high note as they would go on to tie it up when Mathieu Asselin was able to pounce on a badly cleared puck at the goal mouth and tapped it past Jake Allen who was back from Ottawa, recently not making the final cut for team Canada.

Allen would be called upon often as Rimouski threw everything they could a t him in the early stages of the 3rd, having to make as many as 4 important saves to keep the game tied. Rimouski barely had as many chances in the first two periods combined. Nick Layton would  bring the crowd to its feet at 14:08 when he would score on the powerplay, but it would never have happened were it not for the individual effort of Pat O'Keefe, who after fanning on his pass, knocked the Rimouski player off the puck on his clearing attempt, and set up Layton's eventual go-ahead goal. Guillaume Asselin was granted a penalty shot only moments later and put the final nail in Rimouski's coffin. The Océanic thought they had a goal with a minute left in the game, but after video review, it was deemed no good.

A great effort by Montreal and a ravaged roster for the Océanic, hits, battles, a penalty shot and a fight made for one of the more exciting games of the season and the 3,277 fans who appreciated it also added to the feel good atmosphere at the Verdun Auditorium.

Montreal will now head to Gatineau as early as tomorrow where they will meet their nemeses, the Olympiques for their last game before they break for the holidays. They will be without Dmitri Kostromitin and Toni Ritter who already have left for their respective homelands in Russia and Germany respectively. Montreal will resume play on December 27th in Shawinigan.

photo by Amanda Stein.