Team QMJHL Falls In Shootout

FINAL (SO): Team QMJHL 4, Team Russia 5

QUEBEC CITY, Que. – For a second straight year, Team Russia swept Team QMJHL to open up the Subway Super Series.

Russia needed a shootout on Wednesday night to defeat the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League all-stars 5-4 at Pepsi Colisee. Russia won Game One of the 2011 coast-to-coast series 2-0 on Monday in Victoriaville.

On Wednesday, Team QMJHL was finally able to score some goals. Acadie-Bathurst Titan forward Matthew Bissonnette was in beast mode, scoring three goals and earning player of the game honours. Chicoutimi’s Charles Hudon had the other goal in the loss.

Goaltender Louis Domingue had his ups-and-downs in the loss. He allowed four goals on 35 shots - including a couple of weak ones.

Nikita Gusev, Nikita Kucherov, Mikhail Grigorenko and Emil Galimov each had goals for Russia. Netminder Pavel Suchkov made 37 stops in the win.

Russia opened the scoring and led 1-0 after one. The QMJHL took the lead in the second period and led 2-1 after 40 minutes. Russia stormed back in the third period and took a 4-3 lead into the final minute of play. With 15 seconds left and Domingue on the bench, Bissonnette scored following a scramble in the crease to make it 4-4 and send the match into extra time.

In the shootout, Nathan Beaulieu scored a beauty in the fifth round. But his marker would not be enough as Daniil Apalkov scored the winner in round-six.

Team QMJHL outshot Russia 41-36.

The Canadians went 0-for-4 on the man advantage while Russia didn’t have any power play opportunities.

Zack Phillips was held scoreless again and was stopped in the shootout. He registered three shots and was a +1. Beaulieu had an assist, two shots and was a +1 while Pierre Durepos was a -1 and had two shots.

Dating back to last year, Team QMJHL has now lost four straight games against the Russians.