Mar 26 QMJHL - Montreal Juniors Look to end Series in 6 in Rouyn-Noranda : Beat the Huskies 7-0

With the QMJHL playoff series between the Montreal Juniors and Rouyn-Noranda Huskies tied at 2 games apiece, needless to say that this pivotal game was an important one. Also needless to say was that it was an exciting one.

The Juniors would weather two Huskies power-plays and capitalize on their only opportunity to allow the Juniors to skate off the ice after one period, up by a goal. Toni Ritter took possession of the puck at the top of the right face-off circle and let a powerful wrist-shot go that beat Mikael Audette, top shelf. This was Ritter's third goal of the series.

The Juniors out-shot, out-hit and out-played the Huskies by a wide margin during the first frame. Of the 10 hits that Montreal laid on the Rouyn-Noranda skaters, at least 4 of them had the young men skating directly back to their respective benches in legitimate pain. Montreal's robust play would allow the Huskies another opportunity on the power-play with a minute left in the period, but the first of the 2 minutes were uneventful and the teams would reset for the second period.

The play would settle down in the second with both teams playing a tighter game. Both goaltenders would face some dangerous shots that required them to make great saves in order to their respective teams a fighting chance. There would be no scoring, however the hits kept coming at the hands of the Montreal Juniors. Honourable mentions had to go to Samuel Grenache who levelled Huskies leading scorer Sergey Ostapchuk at the midway point of the period, much to the appreciation of the full Auditorium. Moments later, Captain Matt Fillier would lay an open ice hit at centre on Benoit Gervais. Grenache and Fillier would lead the Juniors in hits and end the night with 4 hits each.

The Juniors would get the start they wanted to in the third period, doubling their advance on the Huskies. Fillier would collect a puck from behind the Huskies goal, swung it out to the point to Pat O'Keefe who passed it to TJ Brennan who one timed it past Audette for his third of the series. Tempers would flare s hortly thereafter and in the thick of it was Samuel Grenache who tangoed with Guillaume Tougas. Both would get fighting majors, but Grenache would get an extra ten for attempting to remove his opponent's helmet during the scuffle.

Try as the Huskies might, all their attempts were stopped by the Juniors with the Huskies having only one shot on Jake Allen at the midway point of the third. Montreal would add insult to injury with a beautifully scored third goal of the game when TJ Brennan found Jérémy Gouchie all alone, streaking for the blue line. Gouchie stick-handled and undressed Audette for Gouchie's 2nd of the season.

Then, all heck broke loose. There were so many scrums and scuffles, with all players on the ice except the goaltenders involved that it was difficult to keep track of who was fighting who. Of note was an unwilling Dmitri Kostromitin who was forced into combat by Jerome Gauthier-Leduc, who would end up regretting that by the end of the battle that really got the sold out crowd roaring as Kostromitin was escorted to the penalty box to a resounding ovation.  It would take many minutes for the officials to sort the whole ordeal out, but the fans kept themselves busy with their cheers and an extended wave. This was, after all, playoff hockey.

After all was sorted out and with less than ten minutes in the period, the Huskies would be a man short for 5 minutes and in only 1:38, Guillaume Asselin would add to the Juniors' lead with a wrister that beat Audette, blocker side for his 2nd of the series. A huge penalty filled period saw many Huskies players taking frustrated penalties including a few game misconducts with one of them going to Ostapchuk. with just over six minutes left in the period, the teams would play three aside and Brennan would pop another one past Audette, prompting the fans to break into their first ever rendition of "na-na hey-hey goodbye". The Huskies could not get off the ice fast enough, however, before the fans stopped chanting, and while the Juniors were on a 4 on 3, Toni Ritter beat Audette with his second of the night.

With less than 5 minutes left and the Juniors still on the power-play, Asselin would get his second of the night putting the Juniors up 7-0 and you got the feeling the Juniors were going for ten, but would settle for the 7-0 win. Despite a 5 on 3 opportunity at the end of the pseriod, the Huskies could not get past Jake Allen who, while he did have to make somekey saves throughout the game, only faced 15 shots, an all time low for the year.

The Juniors would now head back to Rouyn-Noranda for game six on Sunday where they will hope to end this series and prepare for round two.

Tags: Game 5 \ Jake Allen \ LHJMQ \ Matt Fillier \ Montreal juniors \ playoffs \ QMJHL \ Rouyn-Noranda Huskies \ Samuel Grenache \ Toni Ritter