Cats Continue Winning Ways Against Armada

After a huge win last night, the cats played another great game tonight, this time against much stiffer competition in the CHL’s fourth ranked Blainville-Boisbriand Armada. Tonight’s match was much more even.

First Period

Yannick Veilleux opened the scoring on the powerplay at 11:57 from Dmitri Jaskin and Jonathan Narbonne. Cats headed into the break with a 1-0 lead despite being outshot 14-11. Fantastic 20 minutes of hockey.

Second Period

No Scoring

Alex Dubeau received a standing ovation from many ticket holders after a beauty save on the penalty kill. Hard to believe the same crowd was booing him off the ice not too long ago, he was a long way from that and in fine form tonight.

Third Period

Ivan “The Armada Killer” Barbashev added an insurance marker at 10:26 from Dmitri Jaskin after a mad scramble in front on the Armada goal.

Allain Saulnier sealed the deal at the 18 minute mark with an empty net goal.

Alex Dubeau stood on his head all night, making several huge saves. Mark Tremaine played a “Tremaine-dous” game! He looked sharp all night, getting some solid offensive chances, defending like a champ, and hitting like a bull. Allain Saulnier looked fantastic leading the penalty kill, which stopped all five Armada chances. Dmitri Jaskin performed well, as always. He had two assists. Yannick Veilleux continued to impress, he is nearly at a point per game now with 17 points in 18 games.

Cats were 1 for 5 on the powerplay and have now one 6 out of their last 7. Hopefully things keep going in this direction.

Cats Three Stars

1. Alex Dubeau

2. Mark Tremaine

3. Yannick Veilleux

Cats Dominate Shawinigan

Moncton has been playing great lately. They won all three of their back-to-back-to-back games on that Western division road trip. Unfortunately they fell 3-2 to Bathurst on Halloween. Still, 4 out of the last 5 aint bad! The defending Memorial Cup champs were in town tonight. Moncton outshot Shawinigan 51-22 and won 11-2. I think it’s safe to say that Moncton outplayed Shawinigan.

First Period:

Dmitri Jaskin scored a beauty, unassisted just over  five minutes in. Yannick Veilleux was working hard for a goal against his former team and got it at the nine minute mark on the powerplay, with assists to Allain Saulnier and Dmitri Jaskin. Alex Saulnier scored a short handed goal at 18:27 from brother Allain. Cats headed to the dressing room with a 3-0 lead and a 20-5 advantage in shots after 20 minutes.

Second Period:

Shawinigan opened the scoring in the second, Moncton netminder Alex Dubeau took a penalty for tripping, and then another penalty for delay of game before the first penalty had expired. Cats killed off the first two minutes, but Shawinigan solved Dubeau during his second penalty, he got a piece of it, just not enough and it slid across the line.

Moncton answered right back just over two minutes later- Allain Saulnier from brother Alex and Ross Johnston. Jonathan Racine scored on the powerplay at the 17 minute mark from James Melindy and Mitch Deruelle. Just 1:16 later Allain Saulnier was celebrating his second of the night from Veilleux and brother Alex. Moncton headed into the break with a 6-1 lead and a 32-13 shot advantage.

Third Period:

Ross Johnston vs. Vincent Arseneau

Johnston was called for slashing, which led to the scrap, and what a scrap it was. Both guys stood up and went toe-to-toe. Good fight, and the boys must have been tired. Hard to pick a winner.

Now I’m not a fan of teams running up the score, I remember a game from last season against PEI where we were leading 5-0 and ended up getting beat 6-5, having said that, Coach Danny Flynn was providing some additional ice time for the third and fourth lines, so it wasn’t like they were trying to run up the score, but that’s exactly what happened.

Christophe Lalonde scored with and assist to Kris Hodge at 8:04.James Melindy scored on the powerplay at 14:41 with assists to Kris Hodge and Ross Johnston. Shawinigan answered back 15 seconds later, but it was obviously WAY too little, too late. Allain Saulnier scored an unassisted short handed goal at 17:20 for the hat trick. Yannick Veilleux closed out the scoring at 18:09, also shorthanded from Dmitri Jaskin and Sam Roussy.

Cats went 3 for 5 on the powerplay and killed 6 of 7 penalties. Alex Dubeau made 20 saves for the win. Allain Saulnier played a great game with the hat trick and two helpers for five points. Rookie Kris Hodge, who is on the third or fourth line when he plays and who hadn’t registered a point before tonight’s contest had three points in seven minutes during the third period. Yannick Veilleux worked hard against his old team all night. Honorable mention has to go out to Danick Emond, looked good defensively and although he didn’t get any points, was a +4. The Blainville-Boisbriand Armada roll into town tomorrow night, and I don’t expect the same type of game!

Cats Three Stars:

1. Allain Saulnier

2. Kris Hodge

3. Yannick Veilleux

 

Cats Squeak Past Sherbrooke

Rocket Blast Cats

Game one of the Pink in the Rink weekend. Sam Roussy was in the lineup for the first time this season coming off an injury. Mitch Deruelle did not dress again tonight. We got our first glimpse of netminder Spencer Tremblay in game action.

Both teams appeared evenly matched, although PEI obviously had the upper hand after 60 minutes as they often seem to against the Cats, shutting out the home team by a score to 5-0. Lots of rough stuff in this one.

First Period:

Kyle Haas vs. Patrick McGrath – Kyle Hass won this one, man can he scrap.

Josh Currie scores on Dubeau to take the 1-0 lead.

Josh Currie vs. James Melindy – Good scrap, got Currie off the ice for five minutes, nothing wrong with that.

Second Period:

Former Wildcat Erik Robichaud beat Dubeau for his third of the season and the 2-0 lead. Dubeau sort of stumbled backwards just before the shot came in and was off balance.

Ryan Graves vs. Mark Tremaine – After the puck was in the net, Graves came rushing at Tremaine and he was hot. Tremaine stood up well against the much bigger Graves in the ensuing bout. Tremaine got two for high sticking, which apparently set Graves off -(not that I saw the high stick first hand or on a replay, they wouldn’t dream of showing a well-timed hockey related replay at the Coliseum, they’re much more interested in pictures of trucks, tigers, and various clip-art-looking images on that screen) and five for fighting. Graves got two for instigating and a misconduct. Tremaine hauled Graves down at the end, hard to pick a clear winner, but I have to lean toward Tremaine because of the David vs. Goliath scenario. On the same play, Ross Johnston and Erik Robichaud each got misconducts got failing to leave the area of the original altercation.

Ben Duffy scored on the powerplay with Kris Hodge in the box. 3-0 PEI.

In comes Spencer Tremblay for his first taste of QMJHL action. He was announced as John Chartrand. Great work. How long has it been since he’s been on the bench? Dubeau left to the crowd cheering, that should boost his confidence. Trembaly is huge and looks like I’d imagine Ross Johnston would with goalie pads on. He made some early stops and pleased the crowd, and they even made the correction in introducing him, albeit while music was blaring at the same time.

Just under two minutes to go in the second and James Melindy got two for checking from behind. Allain Saulnier with an unsportsmanlike conduct.

Third Period:

Louick Marcotte vs. Jonathan Racine – I’ve seen Racine in a few scraps this season, this is the first one he really won, and did he ever. Easy decision goes to Racine. Good scrap. unfortunately Racine got two for instigating and a misconduct.

Jimmy Oligny vs. Jonathan Narbonne – Didn’t really get going, 2 minutes each for roughing. I’m not an Oligny fan.

Just over the halfway mark of the third - James Melindy hauled Josh Currie down on a break. Penalty Shot! SAVE by Tremblay! The crowd loves it.

Just under 9 minutes to go in the third - Matej Beran got a double minor for checking from behind. Some Wildcats were not overly pleased about this, Ryan Penny got two for roughing and a 10 minute misconduct, James Melindy got a 10 minute misconduct for ‘inciting an opponent’, it looked more like some shoving and a facewash with his glove. Refs are trying to restore some order though, and the bench is starting to get shorter.

Spencer Tremblay heads back to the bench, Dubeau is back in goal, the fans are booing up a storm. On the next whistle Tremblay is back in, it appeared to have been an equipment adjustment. The crowd applauds. Again, this must be doing wonders for Dubeau’s confidence.

Just under 7 minutes to go in the third – Although it didn’t appear intentional, I was just a few rows from it and Dmitri Jaskin delivered and awful elbow to the side of Alex Micallef’s head. Jaskin was looking in the opposite direction when it occurred. Micallef dropped to all fours and play continued. A moment later when the referees saw the injured player on the ice the play was whistled dead, which led to…

Jimmy Oligny vs. Ross Johnston – This occurred right next to Micallef, Johnston got two for instigating and a misconduct, Oligny just got five. The linesman was between them the whole time, too bad too, I’d love to see Oligny get squashed.

Jaskin got five and the game for checking to the head.

Alexandre Chenier-Allard scored on the ensuing two man advantage at the 15 minute mark and Ben Duffy added the last of the game to make it 5-0 just 48 seconds later, still on the pwerplay.

Cats went 0 for 3 on the PP while PEI was 3 for 6. Jonathan Narbonne made some fantastic defensive plays in the losing effort and was the best player on the ice for the cats in my opinion. Ross Johnston was hitting like a bull in a china shop all night, and Spencer Tremblay looked sharp in his first half-game despite allowing the two powerplay goals.Christophe Lalonde deserves a mention as well, he played hard all night like usual.

Game two of the Pink in the Rink weekend goes on Sunday against the expansion Sherbrooke Phoenix, who according to the box score played a tight game with Halifax tonight and are coming off a recent win against Cape Breton. Will we get what should be an easy win? Who Dubeau get the start or will it be Tremblay?  As always, I’ll let you know after the game.

Cats Three Stars:

1. Jonathan Narbonne

2. Spencer Tremblay

3. Ross Johnston

Cats Beat Titan in OT

Mitch Deruelle did not dress for tonight’s game. Former wildcat Myles McGurty was in Bathurst’s lineup. Alex Dubeau was sporting a new Wildcats mask tonight, and didn’t look too bad in the net.

First Period:

Bathurst came out strong in the first so Kyle Haas dropped the mitts with Robert Davis just under four minutes into the game, good scrap. It would be the lone Wildcats penalty of the evening! In the little time I’ve seen Haas play, I think he can do more than just fight, don’t get me wrong, he’s a great fighter, but he seems to have a decent shot, and uses his size well, I’d like to see him stand in front of the net on the powerplay.

Dmitri Jaskin scored at 9:04, his ninth of the season, but it would only take Bathurst just over five minutes to grab a one goal lead which they carried into the second period. Luckily it was only a one goal lead as the Titan outshot and outplayed the cats in the opening twenty minutes.

Second Period:

Zach O’Brien scored early in the second period. Not Dubeau’s fault. He went down early, grabbing for a rebound. Jonathan Racine tripped over him and the two were laying side by side on the ice with most of the net wide open when O’Brien knocked the puck into the net.

A little more than three minutes later while on the powerplay, Jonathan Narbonne fired a bullet from the point, Yannick Veilleux was credited with the goal, I didn’t see him tip it but no official scoring change was made by the time of this writing.

Just under three minutes to go in the second period and Dmitri Jaskin was at it again, his second of the night and tenth of the season, from linemate Ivan Barbashev and Danick Emond. Emond really is a solid defenseman and shouldn’t be one of the guys who is ever a healthy scratch. Then again, I don’t think they should have cut McGurty!

Tie game after 40 minutes. Again, luckily as Bathurst looked like the stronger team in that period as well.

Third Period:

No scoring, BUT, the cats FINALLY look like a team who is interested in winning a game, they played a great third period, better that Bathurst.

Just under two minutes to go in the third in a tie game, Jaskin is coming in and is getting hooked liked crazy at the faceoff dot. Penalty to Bathurst, what a golden opportunity (and rough time for a penalty!) But bathurst held off the attack for the rest of the period.

Overtime:

Not much to talk about here, not much time for anything to happen really, 26 seconds in and Jonathan Racine ripped an unassisted goal past Bathurst goalie Jacob Brennan to give the cats the win and make up for the goal he was partially responsible for allowing earlier in the evening.

Cats Three Stars:

1. Dmitri Jaskin

2. Yannick Veilleux

3. Kyle Haas

 

Huskies Beat Cats 3-2

Exciting start – Jonathan Racine got in a fight with Gabriel Desjardins on the first shift of the game. Racine got the additional 10 minute misconduct for removal of equipment, once again, not my favourite penalty. Things sort of went down hill from there.

Not that the cats played bad, they didn’t, and they had quite a few good scoring chances. Unfortunately, Rouyn-Noranda played better and their goalie, Robin Gusse stood on his head. Great game for him, not so much if you’re a cats fan.

Dmitri Jaskin was impressive early on, he just couldn’t convert, at one point on a one on one he did a spin-o-rama to get by the defenseman, but couldn’t beat Gusse.

Jaskin would be impressive later on as well, scoring both of the Wildcats’ goals in the second half of the third period.

Dubeau played well tonight, the second goal was a heartbreaker that just trickled through his pads and over the goal line, and the third was in the empty net. Dubeau was called to the bench with 1:16 left in the third period, too early, too early, too early. Rouyn-Noranda outplayed us all night, how could they not gain control of the puck and dump it into the empty net? Sven Andrighetto did, with an assist going to his linemate Jean-Sebastien Dea. Too bad, before that we had held the current top two point getters in the league off the score sheet.

Yannick Veilleux played hard all night, getting an assist and throwing several nice hits. Christophe Lalonde had an amazing game, he just doesn’t stop, he attacks, he defends, he mixes it up. Great hockey player, too bad he isn’t a little bigger. Ross Johnston didn’t look bad on the ice tonight. Brett Malone also looked sharp with limited ice time on the fourth line.

Cats played the whole game tonight, unfortunately for us, so did the Huskies, and they came out on top. Hopefully we’ll have better luck against Bathurst on Wednesday.

Cats Three Stars:

1. Dmitri Jaskin

2. Christophe Lalonde

3.  Yannick Veilleux

Cats Lucky To Hang On For Win Over Val-d’Or

Two new faces in the lineup tonight, Jonathan Narbonne played his first home game as a Wildcat tonight after being recently acquired for Patrick Downe and three draft picks, and the recently signed Spencer Tremblay was the backup goalie tonight.

Cats looked great in the first period – Outshooting Val-d’Or 19-5 and holding a two nothing lead after 20 minutes. Dmitri Jaskin set up a beauty for Ivan Barbashev’s first regular season goal in the QMJHL nearly five minutes in, and hometown boy Stephen Johnson scored his first regular season QMJHL goal with under 7 minutes to go. The referee’s went upstairs to review this goal, I’m still not sure why.

Three fights in the first period.

Christophe Lalonde got sandwiched between to Val d’Or players and dropped the gloves with Vincent Dunn. Good scrap.

Dmitri Jaskin got cross checked from behind during a line change and fought with Mason Gray. I wouldn’t have pegged Jaskin for a fighter, but he certainly held his own to say the least. He’s the complete package. Unfortunately Jaskin had a 10 minute misconduct tacked on for removal of equipment. I hate this rule.

Jonathan Racine and Samuel Henley were the combatants in the third and final tilt of the period (and night). Racine gets an ”A” for effort but Henley was the clear winner.

Val-d’Or was a different team in the second period.They were still outshot but by a much closer margin, and scored in the first minute. Dubeau faced a barrage of shots before they beat him.

Just over five minutes into the second and co-captain Allain Saulnier made it a two goal game again with his 4th of the season.

The Foreurs came out playing hard again in the third. Just under two minutes in, Vincent Dunn grabbed Dmitri Jaskin by the front of his sweater and was jerking him back and forth, Jaskin wouldn’t bite on the second fighting major and Dunn got two minutes for roughing. Val d’Or scored just over 8 and a half minutes into the third to cut the lead to one again, but Allain Salunier got his second of the night on the powerplay at 16:35 to once again give the Cats a two goal cushion.

Just under five minutes to go in the third and Vincent Dunn gets called for checking from behind on Christophe Lalonde. It was an ugly play that sent Lalonde face first into the end boards. He was alright, but it was a dangerous play that could have led to a severe injury. Two minutes. Should have been five from where I was sitting.

Just under two minutes and Val d’Or got a breath of life, lots of bodies all over the Moncton crease, some appeared to be invading Dubeau’s space, they scored to cut it to one goal. The goal was not reviewed. I will wait to see replays of this on youtube, but from my seat Dubeau had no helmet on and was punching an opposing player when the goal light came on. He was probably upset that the gentleman was laying on top of him.

Even with the less than spectacular officiating, the Cats hung on to beat the Foreurs 4-3. Despite missing two chances on the empty net in the last minute, Yannick Veilleux played a good game. Ryan Penny – who threw a monster open ice hit in the third and Ross Johnston who looked good all night also had solid outings. Narbonne had an assist for his second point in two games with the Cat’s. Mitch Dereulle (Pronounced Drew-Elle for the first time in two seasons on the PA system for some reason) and Dmitri Jaskin each had two assists as well.

After 20 minutes I was wishing we could play Val-d’Or all the time. After 40 minutes I was thinking we will be lucky to hang on for the win. Cats need to play 60 minutes a night, not 20. Lots of talent and a slew of road games though, not time to push the panic button yet, chemistry will build and things will start going our way more often, hopefully sooner rather than later.

Cat’s Three Stars:

1. Allain Saulnier

2. Ivan Barbashev

3. Dmitri Jaskin