RIMOUSKI, Quebec – The only way Jaroslav Halak would have seen more rubber Friday night is if he had taken a tour of a Goodyear Tire plant. Instead, he faced the goal-producing machine that is the Rimouski Oceanic.
For more than two periods, Halak gave the Maineiacs every chance possible to steal Game 1 of their best-of-7 quarterfinal series with Rimouski, but in the third, with the Maineiacs nursing a 3-2 lead, the walls started to cave in around him.
Danny Stewart scored twice and Francis Charette scored another in a two-minute span of the third period as No. 1 Rimouski came from behind to beat the Maineiacs 6-3 in front of 5,062.
“If you give up 45 shots on goal, there is no way you are satisfied that you had a good game,” said Maineiacs coach Clem Jodoin. “Let’s be realistic. They are talented.”
Halak was having his best game of the playoffs to date, stopping phenom Sidney Crosby and linemates Dany Roussin and Marc-Antoine Pouliot on numerous point-blank chances to keep the Maineiacs in the game.
“The star of this game was Jaroslav Halak,” said Jodoin. “If he is not there, we are not even in this game. We have to give the credit to one person, and that is Jaro. Now, we have to do a better job in front of him.”
Halak finished with 38 saves.
The Maineiacs had the Oceanic where they wanted them. At the end of the second period, Eric Neilson took a swing at Jonathan Paiement and was assessed a double minor. On the ensuing power play to start the third, Alexandre Picard scored his second power play goal of the game and the Maineiacs took an improbable 3-2 lead.
Rimouski, however, was just getting warmed up.
“At 3-2, we look at it and say, hey, we have a real chance here, but we know they are explosive,” said Jodoin. “We know they can score like that.”
As the final frame unfolded, Rimouski gained a head of steam and drew energy from the crowd after Stewart knotted the score at three with a tip-in on a feed from Zybnek Hrdel. The two had come in on a 2-on-1 break, criss-crossing passes through Chad Denny’s legs before burying the puck behind Halak.
Forty-two seconds later, Francis Charette snuck around to the right circle from behind the net and roofed a shot past Halak’s glove, putting the Oceanic ahead for good.
“That goal came out of nowhere,” said Jodoin. “He came around from behind the net and just scored from the side.”
Stewart added the first insurance goal, and the Oceanic’s first on the power play in the game, at 14:26, and Jean-Sebastien Cote rounded out the scoring, again on the power play, at 18:24.
“We just have to come out (today) and play the game again,” said Jodoin. “We lost our focus, that’s it. We lost sight of what we had to do.”
After drawing the game’s first penalty, the Maineiacs’ power play continued on its torrid pace with an Alex Bourret goal on a rebound in front of a Brandon Roach shot.
“That quieted the crowd, but not for long,” said Jodoin.
The euphoria of leading on the road ended just 25 sconds later as the crowd roared to life on a perfect feed from Crosby to Marc-Antoine Pouliot on a 3-on-3 rush, knotting the score at one. Another 58 seconds later Dany Roussin potted one of his own from Pouliot and Mario Scalzo to give the Oceanic a 2-1 lead.
Picard got his first of the series just 2:02 into the middle frame, again on a power play, as the Maineiacs knotted the score.
Unlike in the first, Lewiston was aggressive throughout the second period, and nearly paid the price, allowing Rimouski two more chances with an extra attacker. The penalty-kill unit was up to the challenge, though, and the Oceanic came away empty-handed. Lewiston finished 3-of-8 with an extra skater, while the Oceanic scored twice, also on eight chances.
The two teams will lock horns again tonight at the Colisee de Rimouski, facing off at 7:05.
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