Maineiacs aren’t very thankful in Shawinigan

Published on: 26th November, 2009 by Nathan Fournier

The Lewiston Maineiacs looked like they started Thanksgiving a little early, falling 9-4 to the Shawinigan Cataractes in front of 2,905 fans at the Centre Bionest on Wednesday night.

“It’s difficult coming off the bus,” Lewiston Maineiacs’ head coach Don MacAdam said. “That wasn’t a major factor in the outcome of the game. We didn’t have any protection from our defense and we didn’t have great point coverage in the defensive zone from our forwards.”

The Catarctes jumped out to a 1-0 lead as Jean-Laurence Beauchemin snapped a shot from the blue line that deflected off the crossbar for his first career goal at 3:10 of the first period.

Just before the eight minute mark, Shawinigan took a two-goal edge when Michael Claffey tallied his fourth goal of the year.

Michael Chaput received a give-and-go pass from Sebestien Trudeau on the powerplay, lighting the lamp with 3:36 to go in the first period. Mathieu Gingras recorded the secondary assist on the goal.

MacAdam believed the powerplay was effective because the team was active in the offensive zone.

“The powerplay was great tonight,” MacAdam stated. “It was great for one reason; we’ve moved the puck, great puck movement.”

The Maineiacs were 3-for-6 on the powerplay in the contest.

Shawinigan went back to work answering with a powerplay goal of their own as traffic in front of Adrien Lemay and crisp passing from the Catarctes opened a shooting lane for Pierre-Alexandre Vandall, who gave the home team a 3-1 lead.

The Cataractes were 3-for-8 on the man advantage for the game.

The Maineiacs responded quickly in the second. Trudeau notched his second goal this week on the man advantage at the 1:31 mark. Michael Chaput and Samuel Carrier received the assists.

MacAdam likes the quick starts to period, but believed the team needed to bring the same intensity throughout the game.

“We need to do a better job when the game is on the line,” MacAdam added

Just as the Maineiacs killed off a penalty, Paradis took a pass from Michaël Bournival who was behind Lemay’s net and wristed one by Lemay.

Charles Olivier Roussel gave Shawinigan a three goal lead on the man advantage with 1:58 remaining in the second period. Paradis recorded his fourth point of the night and Dave Labrecque notched a helper.

With 28 seconds remaining in the frame Raphaël Pouliot gave Shawinigan a 6-2 lead.

The Maineiacs came strong again for the final period as they went to another powerplay. Gingras finished a great tic-tac-toe play for his second goal of the season. Pierre-Oliver Morin and Alexis Piette added the assists at the 2:53 mark.

Shawinigan went up 8-3 with goals from Claffey and Antoine Houde-Caron added his seventh goal of the year. Claffey’s goal came at the 3:52 mark and Caron’s came 63 seconds later.

Etienne Brodeur notched his sixth of the season as he roofed one past Gabriel Girard. The goal came right after the media timeout with 9:50 remaining in the game.

Dave Labrecque capped off the scoring for the Catarctes with 90 seconds remaining. It was his sixth of the season with Maxime Legault and Ritter set the tally up.

Adrien Lemay made 33 saves in forty minutes of action. Jordan Kennedy made ten saves in the third. Gabriel Girard made 24 saves for his eighth victory of the season.

NOTES: Alex Beaton didn’t make the trip as he suffered an injury to his head Sunday during the Saint Johns’ game. Sebestien Trudeau left a game with a split lip in the third period; his status is unknown for Friday’s game against the Prince Edward Rocket.

Readers Comments