GATINEAU, Que. -- The Gatineau Olympiques have turned their Quebec Major Junior Hockey League semifinal series with the Quebec Remparts into a one-game showdown.
Christian Ouellet scored twice and Maxime Clermont made 21 saves Sunday as the Olympiques shut out the Remparts 4-0 to force a seventh and deciding game in their semifinal.
Nicolas Deslaurier added a goal and two assists for Gatineau, while Philip-Michael Devos added a goal and assist. Jean-Gabriel Pageau picked up pair of assists.
"We've played desperate hockey in Games 5 and 6 and it has paid off," said Olympiques coach and general manager Benoit Groulx. "We stayed alive and forced Game 7 with a great performance by the entire team.
"It's come down to a best of one, with the winner taking the series."
For the second straight series, the Quebec Remparts have seen a 3-1 lead evaporate before their eyes.
The seventh game will be played Tuesday night at the Colisee Pepsi in Quebec City. The winner will face the Saint John Sea Dogs in the league final after they swept the Lewiston Maineiacs in the other semifinal series.
Clermont praised his teammates for allowing him to earn the shutout to force the dramatic seventh game.
"My defencemen did a great job of moving the Remparts forwards from in front of our net all night and was able to see a lot of pucks," he said. "We have shown a lot of character coming back to tie the series but we haven't accomplished anything yet.
"We will have to play an even better game on Tuesday night because we know Quebec will be ready."
The Remparts, in the semifinals for the second time in three years, are looking to advance to the league final for the first time since the 2005-06 season which was coach-GM Patrick Roy's first season in charge.
Quebec won the Memorial Cup that season.
The Olympiques' last trip to the league final was 2008 when they beat the Remparts in five games en route to their seventh President's Cup.
Gatineau seemed in control of the series after defeating the Remparts 5-3 in Game 5 before 12,000 fans at Le Colisee.
Devos notched his fifth goal of the playoffs at 6:45 of the first period with the Olympiques enjoying a 4-on-3 power play.
Ouellet then scored the first of two at 17:30, deflecting a point shot past Quebec goaltender Louis Domingue to give the Olympiques a 2-0 lead.
Gatineau increased its advantage to three at 2:31 of the second when Deslauriers scored on a slapshot from the blue-line.
That was it for Domingue, who was replaced by Jimmy Appleby in the Remparts goal.
"I took Louis out after their third goal because he seemed shaky and bit nervous," said Roy. "Jimmy played well for us after that and gave up only one goal.
"I'm going to decide which goalie to use in the next day or so. Sometimes you have to make a difficult decision to be successful."
Gatineau connected on the power play once again less than two minutes later with Quellet's second of the game.
The Olympiques winger pounced on a rebound to the left of Appleby for his eighth goal of the post-season.
Domingue finished with nine saves, while Appleby stopped 15 shots.
Gatineau outshot Quebec 28-21 and went 2-for-5 with the man advantage. The Remparts finished 0-for-4.
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