Foreurs have experience on their side

Wednesday February 10, 2016

By Josh Sweetland/CHL

The Val-d’Or Foreurs are heating up at the right time.

Winners of nine straight entering a weekend road trip to Shawinigan and Sherbrooke, the veteran group sits atop the QMJHL standings with a 40-9-2-1 record and a league-leading 236 goals scored on the season.

Their main competition this season has been the historic rival Rouyn-Noranda Huskies who currently trail in the standings by just a single point. The Foreurs have gone 4-3 against the Huskies through seven of their 10 meetings this season.

While contenders in Rouyn-Noranda, Shawinigan, Gatineau, Saint John and Moncton stand as obstacles in Val-d’Or’s pursuit of a MasterCard Memorial Cup title this spring, they all lack something the Foreurs see as one of their biggest advantages: experience.

Six holdovers from the 2014 QMJHL championship team in Anthony Richard, Nicolas Aube-Kubel, Anthony Beauregard, Olivier Galipeau, Shawn Ouellette St-Amand and Julien Gauthier remain with the team, providing them with a veteran core more experienced than any other in the league.

“I think the experience gives our team a real advantage,” said draft eligible winger Julien Gauthier, who was just 16 when the Foreurs won their third President Cup crown in 2014. “There are some really good teams in the Q this year, but none of them have made it as far as we have the last couple seasons. I think our time deep in the playoffs will really benefit us, especially as things move along.”

Gauthier is currently the fourth ranked North American skater on NHL Central Scouting’s radar following the release of midterm rankings in mid-January. The big 6’4″, 224Ib winger represented Canada at the 2016 World Junior Hockey Championship in Helsinki, Finland. He and the Foreurs have won six playoff rounds in the last two years.

After Anthony Mantha scored the winning goal in the final minute of game 7 against Baie-Comeau to win the 2014 President Cup, Val-d’Or’s season came to an end in triple overtime of the MasterCard Memorial Cup semi-final in London. Present day Ottawa Senators forward Curtis Lazar led the Edmonton Oil Kings to a 4-3 win in the longest game in MasterCard Memorial Cup history enroute to claiming national supremacy over the Guelph Storm.

Last spring, the Foreurs eliminated Rouyn-Noranda in six games before falling behind 3-0 in their second round series against Baie-Comeau. Gauthier stepped up for Val-d’Or in game 4, winning the game on the powerplay midway through the second overtime.

“Probably the biggest goal I’ve ever scored,” Gauthier said with a laugh. “That changed the series and we came all the way back.”

The Foreurs clawed back to win games 5 and 6 before Alexis Pepin scored 4:18 into overtime of game 7 as Val-d’Or overcame a 3-1 deficit in the game to eliminate Baie-Comeau and become the fifth team in QMJHL history to win a series after falling behind 3-0.

The hard-fought series took a lot out of Val-d’Or, who went on to lose in the semi-finals in four straight games to eventual QMJHL champion Rimouski.

This year’s Foreurs currently boast three of the QMJHL’s top ten scorers in Richard (50 GP, 34-43–77), Beauregard (52 GP, 22-55–77) and Aube-Kubel (45 GP, 32-37–69) while Gauthier is second in the league in goals with 36 in 38 games.

Val-d’Or isn’t all offence either. Mario Durocher’s club is a well-rounded group that has proven it can win on any given night.

The Foreurs boast a strong blueline led by 18-year-old Olivier Galipeau that also features mid-season acquisitions in Filip Pyrochta and David Henley along with overage veteran Carl Tremblay.

In goal, sophomore Etienne Montpetit leads the league with 30 wins to go with a 2.53 goals-against average, a .910 save percentage and three shutouts in 41 games.

“We have all the tools and we’ve been playing some really good hockey lately,” Gauthier continued. “We just have to put it all together.”

A QMJHL title, overcoming a 3-0 series deficit, MasterCard Memorial Cup triple-overtime thrillers. This group has almost seen it all.

The only territory left unconquered for this current group of veteran Foreurs is a MasterCard Memorial Cup title, one they’ll continue to hunt for in the weeks and months to come.