Drummondville loses for the first time

Press Release

DRUMMONDVILLE, Que. - Cedric Lalonde-McNicoll scored twice for Shawinigan as the Cataractes beat Drummondville 5-3 on Saturday to hand the Voltigeurs their first loss of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League playoffs.

The QMJHL final is now tied 1-1, with Game 3 set for Tuesday in Shawinigan.

Coming into Saturday's game, Drummondville had won its last 20 games including the last seven regular-season contests and all 13 in the playoffs to set a new QMJHL record for consecutive victories spanning the end of the regular season and into the post-season.

Adam Bourque-Leblanc, Matthew Pistilli and Alex Grant also score for Shawinigan.

Lalonde-McNicoll scored the winner on the power play at 10:15 of the second from Nicholas Petersen and Dave Labrecque.

Mike Hoffman opened the scoring for Drummondville at 18:51 of the first from Christopher DiDomenico.

Bourque-Leblanc tied the game 1-1 at 2:14 of the second from Antoine Houde-Caron and Pierrick Martel.

Drummondville retook the lead just 16 seconds later on a goal by Marc-Olivier Vachon from Benoit Levesque.

Lalonde-McNicoll got his first of game for Shawinigan at 4:56 to tie the game 2-2 from Philippe Paradis and Maxime Legault.

Yannick Riendeau gave Drummondville a 3-2 lead on the power play at 8:23, again from DiDomenico.

Pistilli tied the game at three on the power play from Lalonde-McNicoll and Charles-Olivier Roussel at 10:15 before Lalonde-McNicoll scored the winner just over six minutes later.

Grant added an insurance goal for Shawinigan at 7:46 of the third from Michael Bournival and Maxime Macenauer.

Timo Pielmeier made 30 saves in the win for Shawinigan, while Marco Cousineau made 38 saves for Drummondville in the loss.

(Nathan also is a writer for Maineiacs Post to Post and the Maine Hockey Journal. He can be reached at fourniern@students.nescom.edu)