Remparts slip past Voltigeurs, 3-2

DRUMMONDVILLE–After having won both games they played this week in Abitibi, the Drummondville Voltigeurs returned home to host the Quebec Remparts, who recently slipped from first in the league to third behind the Halifax Mooseheads and the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada. In a game that lent itself to the colour pink and Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the visiting squad managed to hold on for a 3-2 win.

The opening frame started paying off immediately for Drummondville, as Olivier Archambault set up Marc-Olivier Brouillard for the game’s first shot within the first thirty seconds, and the guys in pink continued to set the tone with similar plays. Though Patrick Roy’s team would answer back, they were met with rookie goaltender Louis-Philip Guindon, who was very sharp in the opening moments. The young netminder did give up one goal later on, to Brandon Shea, at the halfway mark of the first period.
Both teams showed their physicality, but not quite as much as Voltigeurs’ co-captain Gabriel Vermette, who stopped Remparts’ captain Martin Lefebvre right in his tracks after just over seven minutes in the second period with a huge hit at the Drummondville blueline. That prompted a fight and eventually a power play to score the tying goal, one that Habs’ prospect Olivier Archambault had a hand in as Jérôme Verrier was the one who got Drummondville on the board. With 6:32 remaining in the middle period, three of the Remparts stymied the Voltigeurs’ defense as all the passes in the home team’s zone found a beige sweater, and Marc-Antoine Carrier was able to score his fifth goal of the season with help from Kurt Etchegary and Logan Shaw. It was Quebec’s only shot of the period compared to Drummondville’s seven, and despite added power play time, none of those seven found the back of the net.

Drummondville began to be increasingly frustrated with their standing on the scoreboard, as they would continually be found around the Remparts’ net trying to crash and bang away for a goal. Young defensive prospect Nikolas Brouillard would respond to his team’s needs for a power play marker, as  Adam Erne was in the midst of serving a roughing call and with the help of his older brother, Brouillard slapped a one-timer behind Quebec netminder François Brassard for his first goal of the season.

Instead of putting the brakes on, the Voltigeurs continued to throw everything they could manage at the opposition, despite the meager shot-clock that told another story (it finished 21-14 in favour of Mario Duhamel’s men). This momentum dripped away after a disallowed video review call that took several minutes to solve, and it was the Remparts’ turn to use the man-advantage to score a goal. Logan Shaw gave his team the lead for a third time while Tomáš Török was in the box for an obstruction penalty. Mikhail Grigorenko and Erne picked up assists on the play. With Guindon on the bench in favour of an extra man, Archambault and both Brouillards gave one final onslaught to Brassard’s net, but it was to no avail and the Voltigeurs were unable to force overtime.

Drummondville’s next game is in Halifax this Wednesday, at 6:00 p.m. EST. Quebec will return home to take on Baie-Comeau on Thursday, a game that will get underway at 7:00 p.m. at the Colisée Pepsi. More photos to come….