Phoenix beat Remparts 6-4
Sherbrooke ends two-game skid at home in holiday jerseys
After losing their previous two games to the Blainville-boisbriand Armada and the Victoriaville Tigres while being outscored by a margin of 11-1. The Sherbrooke Phoenix got back on track – putting fans in the festive spirit – with a 6-4 win over the Quebec Remparts on Sunday.
Evan Mackinnon and Marek Zachar each put in three-point performances to earn the game’s first and second stars, leading the Phoenix to victory.
The first parts of the game against the visting Remparts was heavily dominated by Sherbrooke. The Birds outshot their opponent 10-3 in the first 20 minutes of the match. However, initially Sherbrooke had trouble getting the puck past Dereck Bariebeau. While trailing 1-0, it wasn’t until the final minute of the first period that Sherbrooke scored, netting two goals 18 seconds apart to take a 2-1 lead into the break.
Sherbrooke’s goals came from Mackinnon on the power play at 19:28 and Zachar at 19:46. Mackinnon scored hopping on a rebound from Baribeau. Immediately following the goal from Mackinnon, Zachar scored on a 2-on-1 rush with Nicolas Roy giving the Phoenix a 2-1 lead.
In the second period, the Remparts outshot the Birds 18-10 leading to them retaking the lead. Quebec took advantage of four penalties to the Birds to give Evan Fitzpatrick a tough period allowing three straight goals, making the game 32 for the visitors.
While second period penalty trouble gave the Remparts the lead, third period penalty trouble gave it right back to the Birds. Sherbrooke scored four goals in two-and-a-half minutes to take the lead. Sherbrooke first took advantage of a 5on-3 power play with a goal from Thomas Grégoire at 7:11 and Félix Robert finished off the power play with a 5-on-4 goal at 7:36.
The offence continued to roll and during 5-on-5 play Mackinnon scored after a fortuitous bounce off the glass set him up behind the net with the puck before scoring the eventual game winner with a quick wraparound at 8:57. After an Olivier Mathieu kneeing penalty at 9:27, Zachar finished off the game’s scoring with the Birds’ fourth power-play goal of the game at 9:42.
Evan Fitzpatrick earned his eighth win of the season stopping 23-of-27 Sherbrooke was 4-of-7 on the power play against the Remparts outshooting Quebec 35-27. The Phoenix have the No. 6 PP unit in the QMJHL with 21.6% scoring efficiency.
shots. Sherbrooke has two road games remaining before the holiday break. The Phoenix (15-11-5-2) will travel to play the top two teams in the league. Sherbrooke
will hit the road to play Rimouski (20-74) Wednesday and Blainville-boisbriand (21-7-2) Saturday.