Phoenix come away with 3 points ahead of home-and-home with Voltigeurs

The Sherbrooke Phoenix put themselves back on track with a pair of mid-week road games against the Chicoutimi Saguenéens and the Baie-comeau Drakkar Tuesday and Wednesday, earning a win and taking a point in a shootout loss.

Against the Saguenéens, Sherbrooke took advantage of their six power play opportunities to score three goals with the man advantage in their 4-3 win.

Mathieu Olivier got the Birds on the board first with by batting a rebound out of the air at 7:41 of the first period, making it 1-0. However, Chicoutimi quickly responded tying the game under a minute later with a goal from Olivier Galipeau at 8:38.

Fortunately for Sherbrooke, Chicoutimi slipped up just over a minute later playing too many players on the ice, giving the Birds another power play which they would capitalize on. Nicolas Poulin gave Sherbrooke their second lead of the game when he deflected a point shot from Connor Senken at 10:09 of the first frame.

After 20 minutes the Birds held a 2-1 lead despite being outshot by the home team by a margin of 12-5. The middle frame would be tilted in the Phoenix’s favour though. In the second period, the Birds overwhelmed the Sags outshooting their opponent 20-3 and scoring two goals.

Marek Zachar scored his sixth goal of the year early in the second when he ripped a shot from the top of the left circle through traffic past Zachary Bouthillier. Later in the period Evan Mackinnon got the Phoenix up to a 4-1 lead when he took a perfect pass from Benjamin Tardif, before deking out Bouthiller.

Sherbrooke carried their three-goal lead into the final period where the team held off a Chicoutimi comeback just short to win 4-3. Evan Fitzpatrick stopped 20-of-23 shots in the win and the Birds were 3-of-6 on the power play.

One day later the Phoenix were in for another tight game against the Drakkar, eventually falling 3-2 in a shootout loss. After falling behind in the first period 10, on a goal from Hugo Chavinsky, Sherbrooke scored two goals in the second to take a 2-1 lead into the final period of regulation with goals from Vincent Lampron and Félix Robert. Despite doing their best to hold out for a 2-1 win, the Drakkar tied the game early in the third with a goal from Isiah Gallo-demetris. After the 3-on-3 overtime couldn’t determine a winner, Antoine Samuel turned away three straight Phoenix shooters and Fitzpatrick turned away the first two shooters from the Birds. The match finished when Gallodemetris scored the game winning shootout goal after he beat Fitzpatrick for the second time of the night.

Sherbrooke outshot the Drakkar 33-25 in the shootout loss, going 1-of-2 on the power play and 4-of4 on the penalty kill.

Next up for the Phoenix (3-3-1-2) is their highway 55 rival the Drummondville Voltigeurs (6-1-0-0). Coming into the weekend the Voltigeurs are perfect with five wins in their last five games, led by Yvan Mongo who has 13 points (4G, 9A) on the year so far. Sherbrooke will host Drummondville tonight at the Palais des Sports, puck drop at 7pm, before their rematch tomorrow in Drummondville.