(Baie-Comeau) Alexis Gendron scored a hat trick and the Drummondville Voltigeurs defeated the Baie-Comeau Drakkar 5-0 on Thursday in the first leg of the Gilles-Courteau Trophy final.
Riley Mercer signed his first Maritimes Quebec Junior Hockey League playoff shutout by making 43 saves. Luke Woodworth and Justin Côté were the other scorers for the Voltigeurs.
“We were opportunistic at times,” Voltigeur head coach Sylvain Favreau said. It will be a fiercely contested series on the ice. For us, it is the victory that is important, whether it is 1-0 or 5-0. We want to win. »
At the end of a duel at the top between the two best teams in the regular season, the Drunkards suffered just one setback in 14 games since the start of the playoffs. Charles-Édward Gravel stopped 25 pucks.
“Our puck management was very difficult,” Drakkar head coach Jean-François Grégoire said. Our execution was not there. We lacked cohesion. »
The second game in this series will take place on Friday in Baie-Comeau. She will then travel to Drummondville for the following two meetings, Monday and Tuesday.
The Drakkers are participating in the final for the third time in their history, but the first since 2014. They have never been crowned champions. The Voltigøren are participating for the fifth time. The Centre-du-Québec club triumphed in 2009 before losing in the semifinals of the Memorial Cup.
This year, the Canadian Hockey League’s season-ending tournament will take place in Saginaw, from May 24th to June 2nd.
Indiscipline lowers the Drakkers
Fueled by the energy of the crowd, the Drakkers tried to start the game strongly, but penalties quickly slowed them down in the first twenty.
A penalty awarded to Anthony Lavoie for a bumping gesture after just 1:49 of play allowed the visitors to fly.
Gendron opened the scoring seven seconds into the power play with a one-timer from the point. He scored his ninth goal of the series, taking advantage of the fact that Gravel had blurred vision.
” It is [un aréna] noisy, Gendron admitted. It is something. A crab was thrown onto the ice during the national anthem, I’ve never seen that. There are trumpets. There is a lot of noise so we really wanted to break their legs when we left and we did. »
The captain of the Drakkar, Isaac Dufort, then tripped Vsevolod Komarov at 10:24. This time, the numerically inferior units of Nord-Côtiers held on, but the Voltigeurs used the momentum to thread the needle 27 seconds after Dufort’s return. to the ice cream.
Côté went to the corner of the ice before passing to Woodworth in the slot, and the latter did not miss the chance. He beat the keeper to his right.
Côté also made it 3-0 himself at 4:28 of the second period. Well positioned in front of the net, he pushed the puck behind Gravel after a play initiated by Woodworth. The latter collected his third point of the match on the sequence.
An unusual play gave the Voltigeurs a four-goal cushion. A Drakkar turnover in their own zone allowed Gendron to take a shot, but he missed the target over the net. However, the puck ricocheted off the boards before bouncing off Gravel’s back to end up in the back of the net.
Gendron completed his hat trick by putting the finishing touches on a smart passing play at 2:02 of the third period.
The 21-year-old has scored five goals in his last two games.
“Things have been going well for me lately,” Gendron said. I had some great passes, credit to my teammates. I scored a lucky goal, but I’ll take it. »
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