The Victoriaville Tigers attack is currently running out of fuel. The defense is vulnerable. The goaltenders need to be better, according to associate coach Mike Maclure. The Bois-Francs team lost in a second consecutive match by a score of 10 to 0, this time against the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada, Sunday afternoon, at the Sports Rousseau Center of Excellence.
Concluding a streak of three games in four days, the Felins suffered a third straight defeat. From the start of the meeting, the locals easily found their rhythm. From the 31st second of the match, Egor Goriunov (14th) opened the scoring. Justin Carbonneau (25th) and Brayden Besner (1st) then gave the Armada a 3-0 lead in the first period.
After the meeting, Mike Maclure pointed out the poor start of his team. For a seventh consecutive game, the Tigers allowed the first goal to the opponent. “It’s always difficult to take off when you have trouble starting your games. It’s not just a goalkeeper, defender or attacker story, but a group story. We have to get out better. This is not something that is new since the period of the transactions, the problem was there before too,” he denounced.
Scoring four goals in the second period and three more in the third period, the locals continued their domination. In addition to Justin Carbonneau, (26th and 27th) who got his hat trick and finished the match with five points, Matheo Nobert (18th and 19th), Olivier Metcalfe (2nd), Ludovik Grenier (3rd) and Brayden Besner (2nd ) hit the target. For a second consecutive match, the Tigers decided to make a change of goalkeeper. Gabriel D’Aigle and Brandon Lavoie each allowed five goals. “They were opportunistic. We gave them far too many quality scoring chances. Subsequently, we came up against Félix Hamel who did a good job in front of the net,” explained Maclure.
The visitors sent a total of 29 shots at the home goalkeeper, who got the shutout. The Tigers were thus blanked in a second successive game. “We are not looking for someone to blame, but our defenders, our attackers and our goalkeepers must be better. We’re going to have to look in the mirror. We have to improve on that. I’m still proud of the group of players we have. We had a week where we had a lot of storms. »
The Tigres (11-25-1-3) will face the Gatineau Matériaux (10-22-5-3) Friday (January 17) at 7 p.m., at the Slush Puppie Center. This will be an important matchup for the playoff race.
Social networks
Faced with the Tigers’ current lack of success, the team is currently facing numerous criticisms on social networks. Mike Maclure wanted to denounce the bad behavior of certain supporters. “It plays in our heads. Yesterday (Saturday) was a day off and we had to deal with mental health cases because there are players who are being attacked for free by people who are not real supporters. The guys still show up at the arena despite everything. They are young people aged 16 to 20. We only play hockey. Bad comments have no place,” he said.
“It was not the players who decided that we were starting a cycle again this year. The goal of the league and our goal as a team is to develop players and people. We do not need this kind of comments to progress, he insisted. You just have to understand how much it can hurt players. They are beginning to become men. I can understand that the fans are disappointed, but I have a lot of problems with those who attack the players. »
Note that the Tigers have closed the comments section on post-match results publications on their social networks.
