FINAL (OT): Voltigeurs 3, Sea Dogs 2
SAINT JOHN – For a team that is tied for the league high in overtime loses, the Drummondville Voltigeurs showed no signs of struggles on Friday night.
The Voltigeurs dominated the Saint John Sea Dogs in the overtime session, picking a 3-2 win in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League action Saturday night. Ondrej Palat put in a beastly performance and scored the OT winner for the Volts at 1:12 of the extra session.
Drummondville had a great chance to finish the game early on in overtime as Sean Couturier missed a wide open cage. A few moments later, a point shot banked off the backboards and went out in front, giving a Voltigeur player an open net. But Sea Dogs netminder Mathieu Corbeil slid over to hug the post and keep the disc out – as a lengthy video review would show.
Palat and Couturier scored in regulation for Drummondville who fell to the Sea Dogs 7-4 last night. Goaltender Domenic Graham was solid in net, making 30 saves in the victory.
It was a bit of a strange game and wasn’t the back-and-forth, shot-after-shot offensive showdown that was predicted. Both teams had shaky moments and missed chances. Saint John’s biggest missed chance was probably in the third period when, on a lengthy five-on-three power play, could not break the 2-2 deadlock.
Stanislav Galiev, now playing on a line with Jonathan Huberdeau and Zach Phillips, had both Saint John goals. Goaltender Mathieu Corbeil got his first real challenge in net as a Sea Dog, making 27 stops. He played well despite letting quite a few rebounds out.
The Volts opened the scoring on a power play at 4:35 of the first. A clean faceoff win by Couturier gave Palat lots of room to work with in front, allowing him to cut through the crease and unleash a backhand shot that flew past Corbeil to make it a 1-0 game.
It wasn’t until the second period that the Sea Dogs were able to tie the tilt. Eric Gelinas let a point shot go that was stopped by Graham. But Galiev was parked in front and buried the rebound to tie it at 1-1 at 1:58.
Only 23 seconds later, Galiev was hooked up on his way to the net on a partial break and was awarded a penalty shot. The skilled Russian put a nasty move on Graham and scored to give Saint John their first lead of the hockey game.
At 2:20 of the third, the Sea Dogs could not clear the puck in front and gave the disc over. Couturier was able to pounce on the play, wristing one past Corbeil to tie the match at 2-2 and eventually propelling the squad to an overtime win.
Saint John went zero-for-six on the power play while Drummondville went one-for-four.
NOTES: See Sea Dogs Postscript tomorrow.
NEXT GAME: The Sea Dogs travel to Baie-Comeau on Friday to face the Drakkar at 8:30 pm.
Photo Credit: Marc Henwood/Station Nation
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