2024 QMJHL Playoffs | Huskies vs. Tigres Preview
It’s a clash between not only two very strong clubs but a pair of franchises that have tasted recent playoff glory. The cats face off against the dogs starting Friday night in Rouyn-Noranda, when the Huskies host the Victoriaville Tigres in Game 1 of this best-of-seven Quarter-Final playoff series.
The Huskies, winners of both the President and Memorial Cup in 2019, are back in the upper echelons of the league once again thanks in part to a series of transactions over the past year that bolstered an already impressive lineup. Led by regular season scoring champ Antonin Verreault and super sophomores Thomas Verdon and Bill Zonnon, the Huskies eliminated the Gatineau Olympiques in five first-round games to reach the second round for the second straight year. With Jérémy Langlois out of commission for that series, the Rouyn-Noranda defense corps spread the responsibilities around admirably thanks to fine performances from Axel Dufresne, Alex Carr and Ty Higgins to name a few. In net, William Rousseau has turned the postseason into an extension of his outstanding regular season by posting a sub-2.00 GAA and notching a shutout in the Huskies’ playoff opener.
The Tigres’ four-game sweep of the Shawinigan Cataractes represented their first series win since claiming the QMJHL playoff title in 2021. Two of the players who experienced that “playoff bubble” title run, captain Maxime Pellerin and defenseman Pier-Olivier Roy, played key roles in Victoriaville’s first-round sweep. Fellow veterans Tommy Cormier, Noah Warren and Justin Larose also came up big at key times, Larose offering up arguably the biggest moment of the series with an overtime-winner in Game 1. The offense remains as well spread out as in the regular season, with six point-per-game players entering round two. Meanwhile, Nathan Darveau remained one of the best the league has to offer between the pipes to start the postseason, allowing just six goals in four games and holding the league lead in GAA (1.23) and save percentage (.952%) as the Quarters begin.
Each club claimed three victories during their regular season series. The most recent of those encounters occurred on March 22, when the Huskies handed the Tigres’ their most recent loss to date, a 4-2 setback in Rouyn-Noranda. Just nine days earlier, Victoriaville notched its most recent triumph over the Huskies, a 5-4 shootout decision on home ice. Overall, the teams have faced one another three times in the postseason and, remarkably, in each of those years, one of these teams went on to win the league championship. Victoriaville drew first blood with a four-game first-round sweep in 2002, while the Huskies earned a second-round sweep in 2019. The Tigres also took out the Huskies in three straight games during the first round of the 2021 postseason.
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Team Comparison (Reg. Season):
Rouyn-Noranda | Victoriaville | |
Record | 47-15-1-5 — 100 Pts | 43-20-4-1 — 91 Pts |
Division Ranking | 1st West | 2nd Central |
League Ranking | 3rd | 5th |
GF | 301 (2nd) | 263 (5th) |
GA | 192 (4th) | 218 (7th) |
PP (Overall) | 25.0% (6th) | 25.6% (5th) |
PK (Overall) | 76.6% (11th) | 80.1% (6th) |
Leading Rookie (PTS) | Lemire (0-14-14 | Gagnon (3-4-7)
Deslauriers (2-5-7) |
Leading Scorers (PTS) | Verreault (36-71-107) | Larose (38-42-80) |
Loshko (28-39-67) | Cormier (30-49-79) | |
Langlois (17-45-62) | Pellerin (34-39-73) | |
Bourash (24-35-59) | Henneberry (34-35-69) | |
Zonnon (18-40-58) | Prishchepov (22-45-67) |