Maineiacs lose, 7-1, in ugly effort to Val d’Or

Published on: 30th October, 2009 by Chris Roy

Lewiston, ME – The Val d’Or Foreurs reminded the Lewiston Maineiacs and their fans of the misery they endured last season with a crushing 7-1 defeat in front of 1,788 at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee on Friday night.

Mistakes proved costly for the Maineiacs because they led to goals, or power play situations for Val d’Or, which led to goals. Val d’Or scored on their first three power play chances en route to a 6-0 lead.

“One of the things (the coaching staff) told the team before the game was this is the best 6-11 team you will see,” Lewiston Maineiacs head coach Don MacAdam said. “I don’t think we took them lightly, but nothing to take away from Val d’Or’s play, they played hard and beat us to pucks.”

“We are really disappointed on the way we played.”

Simon Lacroix made it 1-0 for Val d’Or at 6:42 of the first period when he scored on the power play, beating Maineiacs goalie Adrien Lemay with a slap shot from the point.

With two minutes to play in the period, Val d’Or made it 2-0 when Lewiston failed to touch the puck on a delayed penalty, as Maxime Sauve snapped a shot by Lemay.

Sauve, a second round pick in 2008 of the Boston Bruins, made a good impression on his future potential employers as Bruins’ Assistant GM Don Sweeney was at the Colisee to watch his prospect.

For Val d’Or coach Marc-Andre Dumont, he sees his top line clicking at the right time.

“They (Sauve-Hazen-Boutin) are playing with speed right now,” he said. “When they skate, they are going to have success.”

The special teams continued to struggle for the Maineiacs in the second period as Jonathan Hazen scored, only 24 seconds after Francois Beauvillier was called for hooking, giving Val d’Or a 3-0 lead with 15:10 to play in the period.

Lewiston had a power play opportunity to get back into the game, but Val d’Or found a way to capitalize as Samuel Morneau went end-to-end, slipping the puck by Lemay at 8:18 of the second period, just as the Maineiacs power play expired.

Lemay was pulled, in favor of Jordan Kennedy, as he allowed four goals on 11 shots through the first half of the game.

“Tonight our goaltending wasn’t very good, but we are use to very good goaltending,” MacAdam said. “We aren’t blaming our goaltending tonight.”

Just 12 seconds after Kennedy came into the game, Keven Guérette-Charland welcomed the young netminder into the game as he fired a blast by Kennedy to give Val d’Or a commanding 5-0 lead with 11:30 to play in the period.

At 14:04, Theriault scored Val d’ Or’s third power play goal of the game, followed by Sauve’s second of the night just 1:21 later as Val d’ Or extended their lead to 7-0.

Lewiston finally got on the board with a nice individual effort from Michael Chaput with 2:09 left in the period. Etienne Brodeur received the only assist on the play.

“Our best players need to come back and be our best players,” said MacAdam. “(We need to) have everyone do their piece of the big picture. Do your job, do your role and we will be fine.”

In the third period, with the game out of hand, MacAdam had a change of heart, putting Lemay back in net for the final period after Kennedy six saves during his stint. Lemay turned aside all eight shots in his return.

Raffaele D’Orso was stellar making 40 saves in his return from injury for victory.

Val d’Or was 3-for-6 on the powerplay, while Lewiston went 0-for-5.

NOTES: Val d’Or had only eleven forwards dressed for the game due to injury or illness. These same two teams will battle again tomorrow night in Lewiston at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee. Game time is 7pm.

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