Monday May 1 (Round 1 playoffs)

Venom oust Jokers with 2 straight wins

Venom hung on just enough in the first encounter before easily knocking off the Jokers in the second with a 7-0 score. Despite playing with a much depleted line up, the Jokers forced Venom to play till the very end dropping the game by a slight 3-2 margin. J.Courteau scored twice in the first period and J.Quesnel-Vinet notched an early second period goal that held up just enough. The Jokers attempted 34 combined shots in both games only to solve R.Ranieri on two occasions. As for the second encounter, there wasn’t much expectations for M.Timeo and his teammates. Venom simply out ran and out worked the Jokers igniting four goals in only nine minutes. G.Lallis found the back of the net twice along with P.Scotti, who used two straight goals to end the game earlier. J.Courteau continued his point production by adding one tally and three helpers. While Venom had the expectations on moving forward, their quest to the finish line will get harder vas they’ll have to do it without a significant goal scorer in B.Deslauriers. The sniper is out with a lower body injury and may miss the duration of the playoffs.

(3)Venom vs Jokers(2) Game 1

(0)Jokers vs Venom(7) Game 2

Les Yables sweat out second game with a pair of tallies by D.Pelletier

Both teams looked pretty even to start as they felt one another out in a 1-1 first period. However, things didn’t go too well in the second for Carnage as they saw one goal lead to another. Unable to stop the bleeding, Les Yables had everything go right netting five unanswered markers that included two power play goals. D.Pelletier and F.Lacasse each scored twice and J-F Simard shut the door en route to a 6-1 victory. If Les Yables thought the second game would be an indication of the first, than they were totally wrong. Carnage tightened up their game and managed to play with a lead when M.St-Laurent bagged a power play goal. After being blanked for an entire period, D.Pelletier was able to end the spell for Les Yables posting an early goal by the second frame. At that point, neither side wanted to make any mistakes knowing how crucial the next goal tally would be. But with that in mind, Les Yables didn’t want to take their chances in a shootout which could have easily led to a 12 minute mini game where anything can happen, especially how well B.Madonis was playing. The game was starting to set when D.Pelletier came to the rescue once more. His two tallies may have avoided a catastrophe for a club that has very high expectations. Despite the back to back losses, Carnage did an overall fine job except for one period where they were totally out matched.

(6)Les Yables vs Carnage(1) Game 1

(1)Carnage vs Les Yables(2) Game 2

1 Timer grinds out Team X to advance to semi finals

Unable to compete at a high tempo, Team X saw their season end early on Monday night. The 1 Timer didn’t complicate things, instead they simply out ran, out worked and out battled a team that didn’t have enough fire in their game. With that, came plenty of mistakes and turnarounds that led to many goals for the 1 Timer. In tonight’s case, T.Daigneault was absolutely on fire collecting four points in the opening contest and a hat trick in the second game. Team X fell twice behind the eight ball which forced them to play from-behind all night long. The only bright spot for Team X was their power play, apart from-that, nothing was working right. As for the 1 Timer, both these results will used a stepping stone for their next round. If they can play the same way like they did tonight, than they’ll have a chance, even if it against a top tier team like the Punishers.

(3)Team X vs 1 Timer(4) Game 1

(7)1 Timer vs Team X(3) Game 2

The SalumiVino player of the night goes to Thierry Daigneault of the 1 Timer. His dominant performance in both games proved to be too much to handle for Team X. The skilled forward accumulated 7 points that included a hat trick to earn the player of the night.

With this round over and done with, 4 teams are left over on their quest to the final. The semi final match ups are as follows:

(1) Punishers vs 1 Timer(5) The Punishers have a very active defense that will provide many options to their forwards, and not to forget along with a game breaker in C.Gingras. The 1 Timer will need to neutralize the star forward and simply play a man on man game while patiently wait for their opportunities. Despite their fifth place finish, the 1 Timer have scoring, speed, and goaltending that knock out anyone at this stage of the season, even a team like the Punishers.

(2)Venom vs Les Yables(3) Both teams are very well balanced. Les Yables work very hard and play a grinding style game that will force Venom to react quickly. If Les Yables take away space and guard certain key players, than Venom will be in trouble. If not, Venom will put up the numbers and potentially advance to the final.