Spitfires and Voltigeurs Faceoff Saturday Afternoon
Rimouski, QC – The OHL Champion Windsor Spitfires and the QMJHL Champion Drummondville Voltigeurs open their respective 2009 MasterCard Memorial Cup schedules Saturday afternoon at 4:30 pm in Rimouski, QC. The game can be seen live on Rogers Sportsnet and RDS and is also available on TELUS webcast and to United States viewers on the NHL Network.
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A tilt between two high powered offences will be the case this afternoon as the Voltigeurs and Spitfires each led their leagues in goals scored. Drummondville led the QMJHL with 345 while Windsor led the OHL by scoring 311 goals.
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Yannick Riendeau will look to supply most of the offence for the Voltigeurs and continue his tremendous season where he scored 58 goals and 68 assists for 126 points in 64 games to lead the league. His post-season performance was just as strong scoring an incredible 29 goals and 23 assists for 52 points in 19 playoff games. Taylor Hall scored 38 goals and 52 assists for 90 points in 63 regular season games for the Spitfires. Hall scored 16 goals and 20 assists for 36 points in 20 playoff games to lead the league in playoff scoring and was named winner of the Wayne Gretzky Trophy as MVP of the post-season.
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Looking to contain the offensive threat is a pair of defenders on opposite sides of the ice that have been competing against each other all season. Dmitry Kulikov of the Voltigeurs and Ryan Ellis of the Spitfires each battled at the 2009 World Junior Hockey Championships. Ellis won gold for Canada while Kulikov claimed bronze with Russia. Both are eligible for the 2009 NHL Entry Draft and are top-rated prospects. Kulikov is ranked 11th overall slightly ahead of Ellis who sits 16th as rated by NHL Central Scouting. Ellis and Kulikov also squared off at the 2009 Home Hardware CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game with Ellis emerging victorious 6-1 with Team Orr over Kulikov and Team Cherry.
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Andrew Engelage will tend the net for the Spitfires, with Marco Cousineau likely to start in goal for the Voltigeurs.
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Guy Boucher, head coach of the Voltigeurs, will bring together his team that emerged victorious in a thrilling game seven victory over the Shawinigan Cataractes to capture the President Cup just four nights ago. The Voltigeurs finished first in the QMJHL regular season standings with a record of 54-10-0-4 for 112 points and ranked third in the BMO CHL MasterCard Top-10 rankings.
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Bob Boughner, head coach of the Spitfires, will have his team ready to compete after winning the J. Ross Robertson Cup as OHL Champions last Friday night with a five-game series win over the Brampton Battalion. The Spitfires finished first place overall in the OHL with a franchise best record of 57-10-0-1 for 115 points. The Spitfires were ranked first in the BMO CHL MasterCard Top-10 rankings for most of the season until slipping to the number two rank to close out the year.
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Both teams held light practices this morning with limited squads.