Shawinigan ends the year with 2 wins out of 5 games
Needless to say that the end of 2017 was a tough for the Cataractes. On the other hand, Daniel Renaud’s team managed to end the year with 2 wins out of 5 games. During that stretch, Cameron Askew, Simon Benoit and Mathieu Bellemare shined.
Victoriaville overcomes Shawinigan 7-2
If the Cataractes had managed to take less penalties during that game, the final result would have been a lot different. They gave up 7 goals during that game, but 3 came during Victoriaville’s powerplay. When both teams were competing at even strength, Shawinigan had the upper hand.
For Daniel Renaud’s team, Simon Dubois (1 goal, 1 assist) and Vasily Glotov (1 goal) were the only players to beat Tristan Cazenave who made 28 saves.
Shawinigan stroke early and never looked back with a 7-3 win over Chicoutimi
After loosing every game against their division rival since the beginning of the year, fans sure wanted to see their favorites come out big against the Saguenéens. And Daniel Renaud’s team responded well as they scored early in the game with 4 goals in the opening period. Samuel Asselin, Cameron Askew, Max-Antoine Melançon and Gabriel Denis let absolutely no chance to Chicoutimi’s netminder Alexis Shank.
In the second period, Simon Benoit absolutely destroyed Shank with a rocket from the blue line to put Shawinigan up 5-1.
In the third, despite a little comeback from Chicoutimi who scored twice, Shawinigan added two more goals when Vasily Glotov completed Simon Benoit and Jérémy Martin’s play. Also, Leon Denny scored his second of the year in an empty net.
It was a great night for Lucas Fitzpatrick with 31 saves on 34 shots.
Second win in a row for the Cataractes as they beat Rimouski 3-0!
Young superstar Alexis Lafrenière was in town to face Shawinigan but the fans had another reason to cheer. Netminder and region native Mathieu Bellemare was making his return with the team after the trade that sent him from Gatineau to the Cataractes. Sure, people were happy to see that the 19 year old kid had the chance to play in front of family and friends but they were also delighted to see a good goalie take Mikhail Denisov’s place in the lineup.
Bellemare didn’t disappoint his new teammates with a shutout against the third seed in the whole league. After realizing tremendous saves, he saw Vincent Senez (2 goals) and Jan Drozg (1 goal) take charge of the offense. It was also a good night for Max-Antoine Melançon who recorded 2 assists.
Shawinigan battle hard until the very end… but Gatineau prevails 3-1!
Gatineau was on 9 win streak and many believed that the task was maybe too big for the Cataractes. Well, Daniel Renaud saw his players show a lot of energy and devotion. They even took the lead in the first period when Vasily Glotov scored his 15th of the season. On that play, Cameron Askew got the assist. Five minutes later, Gatineau tied the game at one a piece.
For almost the next 2 periods of play, both teams couldn’t get the puck past Lucas Fitzpatrick or Tristan Bérubé. The Shawinigan netminder made 34 saves and Bérubé stopped 22 shots. With only 38,8 seconds left in the third, Giordano Finoro redirected perfectly a pass from the corner to put Gatineau in front 2-1. A few moments later, Gatineau added another one in an empty net.
The Cataractes falls short 1-0 against Sherbrooke
Even tough we were moments away from the start of 2018, the Cataractes had one last game to play and it was against the Phoenix who prevailed 1-0 in a game who saw Mathieu Bellemare offer a spectacular performance with 34 saves.
Actually, the only shot he didn’t save was the first one he faced when Benjamin Tardif beat him early in the first minutes of the game.
On the other hand, Shawinigan’s offense didn’t show much in this taking only 22 shots on net.
