QMJHL Final: Team Score by Riley Mercer; Voltigeurs has Drakkar in cables

The undisputed superpower of the QMJHL in the regular season, the Baie-Comeau Drakkar are in danger of being eliminated from the final series, after their third straight loss on Monday to the Drummondville Voltigeurs, this time by a clear score of 6 to 2.

After being unloaded in both of their first two encounters on the ice rink, Drakkar saw this third duel slip away from him very early, much to the delight of a packed Marcel Dionne Center.

The band led by Jean-François Gregoire won't have much time to feel sorry for themselves; They'll try to make adjustments in Game 4 on Tuesday (7 p.m. on RDS), also at Drummondville Coliseum.

For their part, the Voltigeurs will have the perfect opportunity to lift the Gil-Corto Cup in front of their home fans. This will be the Centre-du-Québec team's second playoff win.

“They played very well. They dominated us,” Gregoire admitted.

Even before completing the 14th minute of play on Monday, the Voltigeurs had already lit up the crowd with a 3-0 win.

No sooner had Sam Oliver scored Drummondville's second goal than 1:32 later, at 13:27 of the first period, Ethan Gauthier fired one shot into the top corner after Luke Woodworth had thwarted a Drakkar play in the neutral zone.

Voltigeurs champion in overtime in Game 2, Gauthier added a 12th goal to his spring tally. The Tampa Bay Lightning will hopefully make it 13th in the second half.

When Drummond went up 4-0, he already had 12 shots on the cage of Charles-Edouard Gravel, compared to just four for Bey Comeau on Riley Mercer, the Voltigeurs' new record holder.

Drakkar's ordeal did not stop there, as the Voltigeurs team added an unanswered fifth goal before the first break.

One of his club's best skaters in the first period, Mikael Hochet provided a second assist by deftly feeding Lucas Landry from behind the gravel net.

Mercer tags the team

Midway through the bout, the North Shore representatives — who had become completely unrecognizable after losing just one game through the first three rounds — had only fired a measly six shots at Mercer.

Mercer was also approaching the eighth full period in a row without giving anything up to a powerful Bay Comeau attack.

A power play goal by Justin Poirier at 16:41 of the middle period ended Mercer's streak at 162 minutes, 4 seconds.

It was Drakkar's 84th shot on target since the start of the final series.

“Riley is doing an exceptional job,” Voltigeurs coach Sylvain Favreau said. The only thing you can ask of your goalkeeper is to give you a chance to win the game, and he did that time and time again. »

The team record until then held by Frédéric Chabot, in 1988, was 137 minutes and 52 seconds.

Chase Marchand holds the all-time mark in the QMJHL with 223 minutes without allowing a goal during the 2016 playoffs.

But Gauthier cut short the visitors' moment of celebration by scoring 6-1 after 75 seconds.

This result continued until midway through the final third, as captain Isaac Dufort's net proved to be a modest balm for the Drakkars.

Defender Vsevolod Komarov started the match well for the local team by shooting into the goal in the fourth minute.

The Drakkar is participating in the final for the third time in its history, but has never won it. The Voltigeurs are participating for the fifth time and were victorious in 2009.