15 years ago, Alexander Radulov raised a stadium packed with 11 points in Quebec Rembars’s 16-3 win over Rimouski Oceanic. I think a few hours ago, he didn’t know if he would be able to participate in the match.

The match of 19 March 2006 will remain engraved in the memory of 12,485 spectators who watched Radulov almost equal the all-time record of 12 points per game, set by Andre Savard on February 5, 1971.

But this morning, the number 22 is not at its best.

“I was bothered by a small injury, but I don’t remember exactly what it was,” Radulov said in a telephone interview with the newspaper. For morning workouts that day, I was in the treatment room and Patrick (Roy) came to me and asked if I wanted to play or if I wanted to take a break. I finally decided to play. “

Prior to the match, as usual, striker Brent Aubin had gone to pick up Raduloff at Patrick Roy’s residence in Lake Bobport. The Radu family, Helen and Albert Paquet, moved there a few months ago after selling their home.

“In the car, I remember that Rado was not on his plate. When we got to the square, he told me that he would rest in a room in the Colosseum, and would come and wake him up 20 minutes before the warm-up period,” he remembers the previous number 18 of the ramparts.

At this time, Obin has 56 goals on the clock, compared to 54 for the Russian superstar. Internally, Kipcare sees his chances of finishing first among the team’s goalscorers are increasing.

Aubin adds: “In the dressing room while I was dressing, I told him jokingly, that his injury was a good thing and that it would allow me to score with more goals than he did.”

Fatal error!

dominance

During the 2005-2006 season, Océanic recovered from Sydney Crosby’s departure. Prior to the meeting, Doris Labonte’s side had achieved 10 wins in 69 matches and scored a disastrous difference of -180.

The meeting begins, mixed as expected. After a while, the Red Devils led 7-1, and Radulov scored twice and scored twice.

“Everything worked out,” Radulov recalls. It’s as if the disc is burning and every time I touch it, what I’m trying to do. “

middle finger

Despite the dominance, the Remparts did not calm down and Patrick Roy continued to send Radulov on the ice regularly, thus in response to the request of fans who were constantly chanting his name in the Colosseum. On the other hand, Oceanic coach Doris La Ponte is standing next to him.

Finally the Rembars insulted their opponents 16 to 3, and before leaving for the locker room, La Ponte sent his middle finger to Roy.

“I will let Andre (Julikour) talk to you, otherwise it will overflow. Anyway, all you have to do is go and question the Lord on the other side, and he will explain everything to you,” La Ponte had mentioned at the time, and he refused to return to this. Events with the magazine.

Even today, Roy denies his desire to humiliate Oceanic.

“Rado was completely on fire that day and was picking up points quickly. He was an outstanding player and deserved special treatment. Quebecers wanted him on the ice and I had to give them. The last thing you wanted was to embarrass the opponent, but we had to please our fans. Plus, we asked.” Our players are not to slow down, and if I did, I wouldn’t send the right message. “

Thanks to his seven goals and four assists, Radulov established his dominance as the top scorer in QMJHL with 152 points in 62 matches, 17 points more than his closest competitor Stanislav Lask of Saguenéens de Chicoutimi who collected 135 points in 64. Part.

He was also ahead of Aubin in the Rimbars scorers’ list with 61 goals against 57 for Quebec.

“I think I stung him!” Radu, that was it. When you wanted to get the best of him, you had to prick it, “laughs the guy who plays this year with Roosters of Iserlohn, first class German.

Instantaneous chemistry

The match of 19 March 2006 will be, in a way, decisive in continuing Rimbars de Quebec’s journey towards winning the Memorial Cup. By reuniting Alexander Radulov and Matthew Melanson into the same trio, Patrick Roy had just created a duo that would terrorize the opponent’s defenses in the playoffs.

Until then, the two left players had been playing on the right flank of the first two lines of the team.

During a 2–1 loss against his great rivals, Saguenéens de Chicoutimi, in the penultimate match of the season, Roy decided to change his lines along the way and place Melanson to the left of Radulov and the 16-year-old. Old Angelo Esposito Center He liked what he saw enough to repeat the experiment in the next part.

“When we pulled Patrick together, it looked like we were talking without talking to each other,” Melanson told the newspaper, who collected seven points on March 19. I didn’t possess Radu’s talent, but I watched the game the same way. I think we have skills that complement each other well. It was really an honor to be part of this team and especially to play with it. He was a great player and definitely the best offensive player I have had the opportunity to play with. “

In the end, Melanson scored 25 goals in 23 playoffs while Radulov finished first in the league with 21 goals and 55 points.

The best in 21 years

By scoring 11 points on March 19, 2006, Alexander Radulov not only came close to the all-time record, but also achieved an exceptional achievement in his time.

The only other time a QMJHL player scored 10 points in a match since 2000 was during the 2000-2001 season, when Marc-Andre Thinhill and Karl Mallet each reached ten points on November 3, 2000.

Since Radulov, Thomas Kubalik (2009) and Samuel Bolin (2019) have been the closest players to Savard’s record, with eight points in the same match. To put it in perspective, the player who can be considered the best player to play in QMJHL since 2000, Sydney Crosby, has not scored more than seven points in the same game.

Last record

Even if Radulov comes close to Andre Savard’s record of 12 points, it is still the latter who holds the record. On February 5, 1971, Savard joined Jay LaFleur to score 10 of Quebec’s 14 Remparts in a 14-1 break against National de Rosemont.

Savard finished the match with three goals and nine assists, while LaFleur scored seven goals and four assists. Ironically, more than LaFleur’s seven goals are the ones reported by the Journal de Quebec in its February 6 issue.

It wasn’t until the second paragraph of the text that we were told that Savard “broke the mark of all time”.

Note that their triple partner, Michel Brier, finished with 10 points (3 goals, 7 assists).