2024 QMJHL Playoffs | Voltigeurs vs. Tigres Preview
It’s been a regional rivary for almost four decades and, this time, there’s a trip to the 2024 Gilles-Courteau Trophy Final on the line. The Drummondville Voltigeurs and Victoriaville Tigres, two of the league’s top squads since the start of the season, will battle each other in a best-of-seven semi-final clash starting Friday night in Drummondville.
The Voltigeurs enter the third round with an 8-2 record following a first-round sweep of the Saint John Sea Dogs and a six-game triumph against the feisty Sherbrooke Phoenix. Leading Sylvain Favreau’s troops is Ethan Gauthier. The 2023 Tampa Bay Lightning draftee has yet to be held off the scoresheet this postseason, leading the league with 18 points in 10 games. Peter Repcik continues to prove to be a savvy off-season acquisition, while Luke Woodworth and Sam Oliver cornered the market in game-winning snipes during the quarter-final, accounting for two each. Vsevolod Komarov, Marc-Olivier Beaudry and Mikaël Diotte, the 2024 Kevin-Lowe Trophy winner as Top Defensive Defenseman, continue to hold down the fort on the blue line. Meanwhile, Riley Mercer continues to roll in net, posting a 2.21 GAA and .916% save percentage in his first extended playoff run. This is the first semi-final appearance for the Volts since 2019, when they were defeated in six games by the Halifax Mooseheads. The club will be hunting for its first trip to the championship round since 2009, when Drummondville won it all for what remains the only title in franchise history.
[WATCH THE PLAYOFFS LIVE ON CHL TV]
Just when you think they’re down, the Tigres are here to tell you they’re never out. After sweeping the Shawinigan Cataractes in round one, Carl Mallette’s squad took down a talented Rouyn-Noranda Huskies team in a five-game quarter-final series that saw Victoriaville rally from deficits in Games 1, 2 and 4. It was also a series that featured a seemingly endless list of heroes among the guys in yellow and black. Between Nathan Darveau’s 48-save performance in Game 1, Maxime Pellerin’s four-point night in Game 2 (following a Game 1 hat trick), Alexis Bourque’s two-goal performance in Game 4 and Pier-Olivier Roy scoring his first career QMJHL playoff goal on a penalty shot for the series clincher, you never really know where the knockout blow is coming from among this group. With six point-per-game players so far this postseason, the wizardry of Darveau between the pipes and the experience of Pellerin and Roy, both of whom tasted postseason victory with the Tigres in 2021, this has all the markings of a marquee matchup between a pair of truly entertaining clubs.
The Volts won four of six contests against the Tigres during the regular season. As for postseason competition, few teams in the Q can boast a head-to-head history of this caliber. The two clubs have previously clashed seven times, including last spring, when Drummondville upset Victoriaville in a five-game first-round encounter. The Tigres’ last playoff triumph against the Voltigeurs occurred in 2018, yet another five-game series win during that year’s quarter-final.
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Team Comparison (Reg. Season):
Drummondville | Victoriaville | |
Record | 48-14-5-1 — 102 Pts | 43-20-4-1 — 91 Pts |
Division Ranking | 1st Central | 2nd Central |
League Ranking | 2nd | 5th |
GF | 306 (1st) | 263 (5th) |
GA | 183 (2nd) | 218 (7th) |
PP (Overall) | 26.6% (2nd) | 25.6% (5th) |
PK (Overall) | 81.2% (T-3rd) | 80.1% (6th) |
Leading Rookie (PTS) | Poulin (3-11-14) | Gagnon (3-4-7)
Deslauriers (2-5-7) |
Leading Scorers (PTS) | Gauthier (36-35-71) | Larose (38-42-80) |
Oliver (35-36-71) | Cormier (30-49-79) | |
Komarov (14-55-69) | Pellerin (34-39-73) | |
Côté (32-35-67) | Henneberry (34-35-69) | |
Woodworth (21-41-62) | Prishchepov (22-45-67) |