Team Lafleur beat Team Crosby 6-5 in a shootout to win the inaugural QMJHL Top Prospects game.
Maddox Dagenais' shootout tally was the decider for Team Lafleur, as they took down Team Crosby 6-5 in a thrilling inaugural QMJHL Top Prospects game.
With the Stanley Cup in the building, the 40 draft eligible prospects across the league put on a good show for the crowd at the Palais des Sports Léopold-Drolet in Sherbrooke.
The scoring didn't really start until around halfway through the game, as Nathan Lecompte's first period tally for Team Lafleur was the only marker before the halfway point of the game.
Two quick goals from Team Crosby's Dylan Rozzi and Alexis Fortin blew the game open just past the midway point of the second period, before Nikita Ovcharov equalized with a well-placed shot over the shoulder of Jan Larys before the second intermission.
In the third, Team Lafleur jumped off to a quick start through goals from Romain L'Italien and Zachary Morin. Dagenais tapped home power-play goal off a nice feed from Egor Shilov with just over five minutes left in the third gave Team Lafleur a 5-2 lead, and it seemed like they'd cruise off to claim the victory.
But, Team Crosby fought back, with Louis-Francois Belanger and Rian Chudzinski cutting the lead to 5-4, before Korney Korneyev put home a rebound off the end boards to complete the improbable comeback, sending the game to overtime.
The extra frame solved nothing, meaning a shootout was needed to decide the victor. After Shilov and Oleg Kulebiakin each scored in the first round, Chudzinski couldn't match Dagenais' second round goal, which stood as the winner.
Ovcharov's one goal, two assist night saw him named player of the match for Team Lafleur, while Liam Lefebvre's two assists gave him the player of the match honours for Team Crosby.
Other standouts on Team Crosby include three assists from Kulebiakin while Chudzinski put up a goal and an assist. On the Lafleur side, Lecompte added two assists to go alongside his opening goal, and Justin Blais collected a pair of helpers. William Lacelle stopped all 15 shots sent his way across his 30 minutes of ice time.
Overall, the game was played at a nice pace and filled with a ton of talent on either side. The assembly of top draft-eligible prospects made it a great opportunity for scouts to gather and see many players on their radar, with over 100 NHL scouts in attendance for tonight's game, including the head scout for all 32 NHL teams.
It's pretty easy to say the inaugural QMJHL Top Prospects game was a huge success, and hopefully will become an annual event in the coming years.
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