Starting Quickly In Baie-Comeau

You may not recognize this logo, but this is the logo for the QMJHL's Baie-Comeau Drakkar. There aren't a lot of former Drakkar players who have gone on to long NHL careers, but David Savard, Marc-André Bergeron, and Gabriel Bourque have skated in the most NHL games after graduating from the Drakkar while Maxime Fortunas, Patrick Thoresen, and Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond are other players who have spent time in Drakkar colours. Usually, I don't write about QMJHL teams unless they've done something fairly impressive, and we had one of those nights in Baie-Comeau this evening as a little franchise history was made on this evening as the "Longships" were in action!

The Drakkar have only had nine winning seasons since their founding in 1997-98, so there hasn't been a lot of celebration in Baie-Comeau over the years. The good news is that the Drakkar have jumped out to a 14-2-2 start this season in the QMJHL, and they were hosting the 8-6-3 Chicoutimi Saguenéens in QMJHL action this evening. Normally, we have to wait for games to end for history to sink in, but this record was set very early in this game!

The opening face-off is where we'll start. Here's the video.

What you just witnessed was the fastest goal from the start of the game in Baie-Comeau Drakkar history as Félix Gagnon scored eight seconds into the game for the Drakkar, beating Saguenéens' netminder Mathys Fernandez off a pass from Émile Chouinard for his sixth goal of the season! Gagnon and the Drakkar would go on to win the game 5-3 after falling behind 3-1 as well, so they earned their 15th win by rallying for a victory!

You may be asking whose record he broke, and that belonged to Charles Linglet who set the record of opening the Drakkar scoring just ten seconds into a game back on November 22, 2001 against the Hull Olympiques on a night where he scored four goals in a 9-3 victory. Amazingly, Linglet's record broke an incredible feat as the Drakkar scored eleven seconds into two games on back-to-back nights in 2005! Jean-François Jacques scored 11 seconds in on March 4 against Sidney Crosby and the Rimouski Océanic in a 5-5 tie, and teammate Patrick Simard equalled the feat one night later on March 5 against David Desharnais and the Chicoutimi Saguenéens! How cool is that?

If you were wondering, the fastest goal from the start of a game in the QMJHL is owned by three players as they scored five seconds into a game. Those players include David Henley of the Val d'Or Foreurs who did it on October 4, 2013 against the Charlottetown Islanders; Félix Lauzon of the Victoriaville Tigres who did it on September 25, 2014 against the Val d'Or Foreurs; and Riley Kidney of the Acadie-Bathurst Titan who did it on March 30, 2022 against the Charlottetown Islanders. While Gagnon's goal was a little later than those three, it does put him in a tie for the 17th-overall fastest goal to begin a game!

There's a pretty cool little moment for the Drakkar and for Félix Gagnon. We'll see if the Drakkar can continue their torrid start to the season to be one of the favourites in the QMJHL this season, but they appear to be the real deal when it comes to winning through the first month-and-a-half of the QMJHL season!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!