A late-game gamble by Val d'Or head coach Marc-André Dumont ended up backfiring and hurting his team's comeback surge in a 6-4 loss to the Gatineau Olympiques Friday night.
Gatineau (10-10-1-0) jumped out to a 5-2 lead over the Foreurs (10-13-0-2) on a Raphael Lafontaine goal with just over three minutes to play in the third period.
The goal was Gatineau's fifth in a row.
Dumont then got a power play from a hooking call on Christian Ouellet and pulled goalie Francois Tremblay, but Gatineau's Taylor Burke scored a short-handed empty net goal fourteen seconds later.
Val d'Or's two goals in the last 1:36 of the game weren't enough to close the gap.
Olympiques netminder Francois Lacerte earned his ninth win of the season by making 28 saves, while Tremblay stopped 18 shots.
Gatineau's leading scorer Jean-Gabriel Pageau added four assists, upping his point total to 17 goals and 13 assists in 15 games.
