Phoenix make it five straight wins
Sherbrooke takes two hard fought home wins over Abitibi opponents
The Sherbrooke Phoenix upped their win streak to five games with wins over the Val-d’or Foreurs, 4-1, and the Rouyn-noranda Huskies in overtime, 2-1, this past weekend at the Palais des Sports Léopold-drolet.
On Friday, the Birds overwhelmed the visitors for a full 60 minutes terrorizing goaltender Jonathan Lemieux. By the time the Saturday afternoon game had finished Sherbrooke had outshot their opponent by an insane margin of 40-10. Val-d’or didn’t even muster a single shot in the third and final period.
Sherbrooke got on the board first with a shorthanded goal by Mathieu Olivier at 18:37 of the first period. However, the lead didn’t last long with Vald’or’s Frédéric Abraham getting a power play goal 32 seconds later at 19:09, tying the game.
The middle frame was where Sherbrooke amped up the pressure, ending the period with 21 shots on net. Olivier scored his second goal of the game at 5:03 assisted by Marek Zachar and Yaroslav Alexeyev. Sherbrooke’s captain Hugo Roy followed it up with the team’s third goal of the game late in the period at 18:18.
Olivier completed the hat-trick with a goal on the empty cage beating the buzzer by one second, with the final goal of the game at 19:59 of the third period.
Starting netminder Evan Fitzpatrick made stops on 9-of-10 shots in the game for the Phoenix.
The second game of the weekend on the Sunday was a much more tightly contested against the Huskies. Mathieu Boucher put Rouyn-noranda ahead with a goal midway through the first period assisted by Peter Abbandonato. From there, the two squads traded chances with neither team scoring in the middle period as Fitzpatrick and Zachary Emond held their ground in their respective nets.
Midway through the period the equalizer was scored for Sherbrooke by Quinn Hanna with the help of Samuel Poulin and Olivier Crête-belzile at 8:21.
Unable to determine a winner in regulation, the game went to overtime with the Phoenix’s win streak on the line. With Zachary Lauzon and Taylor Ford hooking penalties carrying over from the end of the third period, Sherbrooke opened OT with a 5-on-3 power play. The birds took full advantage sending the 2,077 fans into a frenzy when Thomas Grégoire ended the game with his second overtime game winning goal in his last three games at 0:28.
Fitzpatrick stopped 23-of-24 shots in the game while his opponent, Emond, stopped 33-of-35. For his outstanding recent play, the past three games, Grégoire was named the QMJHL’S player of the week on Monday. Grégoire has registered six points (3G, 3A) in his last three games, including two game winning goals in overtime. The 19-year-old rearguard now leads all QMJHL defencemen in scoring with 27 points in 26 games.
Sherbrooke will host the Victoriaville Tigres (11-12-2-1) looking to get their sixth straight win tonight, before hitting the road to play Chicoutimi and Baiecomeau on the weekend.