Foulem gets first career win; Cataractes thump Tigres
SHAWINIGAN – Frederic Foulem made his first career start in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League on Saturday night in front of a home crowd of 2,757 fans. The 18-year-old surrendered just two goals en route to securing the first win of his career.
Alex Pawelczyk opened up the scoring for Shawinigan only two minutes into the contest beating James Povall. Alexis D’Aoust had the lone assist.
A shorthanded marker from Felix Lauzon got the Tigres on the board and tied the game 1-1 at 6:11. Mathieu Ayotte assisted on Lauzon’s second goal of 2015.
10 minutes later Marc Beckstead put the visitors from Victoriaville in front 2-1 off an assist from Austrian forward Mario Huber. 2015 third overall pick Maxime Comtois also grabbed a helper.
Mathieu Olivier and Gabriel Slight each scored at 18:45 and 19:59 respectively to give the Cataractes a 3-2 lead at the end of the first period. Olivier’s second of the year was unassisted while Samuel Girard had the only assist on Slight’s marker.
Alexis D’Aoust and Gabriel Slight each scored in the first seven minutes of the second period to extend the Shawinigan lead to 5-2. Samuel Asselin, Jocktain Chainey, and Brandon Gignac got on the scoresheet with assists. Slight’s fourth of the season and second of the night was a powerplay goal.
Later in the frame Giovanni Fiore scored a powerplay goal of his own at 13:46 to end the night of Tigres goaltender James Povall. Olivier Tremblay took over in relief. D’Aoust and Girard continued multiply point nights with another assist each.
Nicholas Welsh pushed the lead to 7-2 with a goal in the final five seconds of the second period. Slight and Girard each added helpers.
With 1:30 left in the game, Charles Taillon potted his first career QMJHL goal to ice the victory and make it an 8-2 win. Alexandre Dufour and Louis-Philip Fortin notched assists.
Frederic Foulem only had to make 13 saves as the Cataractes stayed undefeated so far this season at 4-0-0. In those four games, the Cataractes have used three different goaltenders with Foulem and fellow rookie Mikhail Denisov getting their first career wins. Antoine Samuel has started twice winning both contests.
On the visiting side, James Povall and Olivier Tremblay combined for 20 stops in the losing effort.
The Cataractes return to action next Saturday, September 26th as they welcome the Baie-Comeau Drakkar to town for a 4pm tilt at Centre Gervais Auto.
