Minville leads the way against the Armada
Gatineau – The Olympiques were back home for a clash with their division rival, the Armada de Blainville-Boisbriand. Gatineau hadn’t played in front of its fans since February 6. The home team’s first trio put on quite a show for the 3,500 fans at the Slush Puppie Centre, giving the Olympiques two important points in the playoff race in the Slapshot game.
Jérémie Minville’s first period
The first ten minutes of the first period were fairly quiet, but Jérémie Minville woke up his team with two goals in just 22 seconds. Minville (33rd) sent a powerful shot behind goalkeeper Olivier Ciarlo on the power play to open the scoring. Minville (34th) then doubled his team’s lead with a precise shot from the edge of the zone. However, his show wasn’t over, as moments later he passed the disc to Justin Boisselle (15th), who took advantage of a gaping cage to score his team’s third goal in less than two minutes. Emanuelson Charbonneau-Joseph then calmed the storm by scoring his team’s first.
A good goal for Jan Golicic
The action definitely waned in the second period. The Armada were clearly struggling to produce offensively, and when they did find an opportunity to score, Kian Hodgins shut the door. In the last minute of play, Jan Golicic (2nd) found the back of the net with a precise shot from the point, giving the home side a three-goal lead. It was the first goal for Slovenia’s great defender since October 9, 2023.
A disallowed goal and a major penalty before the end of the game
The Armada thought they had regained some hope with a goal early in the third period, but after a lengthy review by the officials, it was disallowed. Then, with just under five minutes to go, Olivier Lemieux received a major penalty and was ejected from the game for double-checking Nathan Lévesque’s head. Jérémie Minville (35th) doesn’t miss this opportunity to score his second hat-trick in three games and beats Ciarlo with a powerful shot. Mathis Cloutier reduces moments later on a breakaway, but too little too late, the Olympiques win the match 5-2.
Jérémie Minville scored his second hat-trick in the last three games. He had scored three goals and an assist against the Sea-Dogs last Saturday.
“I try to get pucks to the net, and when I have chances to score, they go in,” says Minville.
His trio-mate, Charles Boutin, earned an assist on each of Jérémie Minville’s three goals, as well as a fourth on Justin Boisselle’s goal.
“Since the start of the year, we’ve been paired together and he makes my job a lot easier. We saw it on the first goal, I just had to put it in, it was a really nice pass,” Minville says of his captain, Charles Boutin.
The Olympiques hadn’t played a game at the Slush Puppie Centre since February 6, something that worried interim head coach Serge Beausoleil.
“I was apprehensive about this game, because when you come back from a long, exhausting trip, sometimes the guys’ legs are a bit weak,” says Beausoleil. We didn’t have a morning practice this morning, and in the first period, we had 11 chances to score against four. We played really solid field hockey.
“I think the Hanson brothers and Mr. Lemieux inspired us a lot,” adds Beausoleil, referring to the game where Jeff and Jack Hanson, as well as Denis Lemieux from the movie Slapshot, were present at the Slush Puppie Centre.
The Olympiques’ next game is Friday (February 23) against the Halifax Mooseheads at Centre Slush Puppie.
