Completing a streak of three games in four days, the Victoriaville Tigres fought well against one of the good teams in the Maritimes Quebec Junior Hockey League (QMJHL), the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies. The Felins lost the match 5 to 3 on Sunday at the Glencore Arena.
Holding a 3-2 lead after 40 minutes of play, the visitors believed in their chances of completing a perfect week with three victories. Two goals in 14 seconds at the start of the third period, however, allowed the Pack to get their hands on the two points. “I thought we played a good road game for a stretch of three games in four days. They have a good team on the other side. I liked what I saw. Jakob Hanlan was very solid for 40 minutes. We wanted to win for him,” commented head coach Carl Mallette after the game.
The Tigers pilot also explained his views on the Huskies’ comeback. “We made a turnover at our own blue line which led to a penalty. It cost the equalizing goal. After that, there was a game where we knew what was going to happen. There was a skittish jump on the tape. In Rouyn-Noranda, they know their band and it’s metal. We talked about it, but we got beaten hard at the net. It cost the match. It’s unfortunate because we were ten minutes away from leaving with a six-point week. It would have been very good,” he lamented.
Despite this unfortunate streak, Carl Mallette liked the way his team fought the rest of the match. The Felins notably had leads of 2 to 0 and 3 to 1. “We were opportunistic. We had a nice power play goal from Francesco Iasenza (3rd). We also had two good quality shots from Olivier Houde (10th) and Alexis Bourque (6th). So, we were really playing a match to win it, he noted. We were in a really good position at 3 to 1. Their second goal was questionable and it changed the match. »
The head coach also liked the handling of the third period, although his team found itself trailing by one goal for the first time in the match. “We stayed in the game. We notably killed a 5 against 3. At the end of the game, we were in their zone for a minute and a half. Unfortunately, their goalkeeper made some good saves for them. Our team never gave up. It was really a sequence of four or five minutes of lack of concentration with an error at our blue line which hurt us. It’s part of the learning,” he said.
Getting a rare start this season in front of the Tigres cage, Jakob Hanlan did very well in the defeat, blocking 33 pucks. “He was the main reason why we were leading after two periods. He made some big saves that weren’t obvious to him. It was a difficult situation in Rouyn-Noranda, and it was a sequence of three games in four days. He was very good,” praised Mallette.
The Félins (7-11-1-1) will cross swords with their great rivals, the Shawinigan Cataractes (7-10-0-0), Thursday (November 14) at 7 p.m., while they will be visiting the Gervais Auto Center.
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