Inside the Numbers for Game #7 – Gatineau vs Cape Breton

Tonight in Cape Breton, it’s the decisive game between the Screaming Eagles and the Gatineau Olympiques. You are invited to read the following…

Decisive games in a series

• In the last 10 years, 56.5% of the time, it’s the visiting team that won game 7 in a series (13 of 23).
• However, throughout QMJHL’s history, the home team is favoured with 72.3% of the victories (60 of 83).
• Cape Breton – in a 7th game, they hold a record of one win against four loses (1-4). In their last four games, they fell short against Val-d’Or (2007), Quebec (2009, 2015) and Saint John (2016). We need to go back 16 years to a Game 7 win by the Eagles (2001, vs Chicoutimi).
• Gatineau – impressive in decisive games, with a record of 10 victories and 3 losses (.769 win percentage), having won their last 5 game seven. Laval (1983), Chicoutimi (1994), Acadie-Bathurst (1999, in the finals) are the games they lost… In the winning column: in 1988, against Laval and Drummondville (in the finals). Other victories were in Longueuil (1990), St-Hyacinthe (1994), Val-d’Or (1996), Montreal (2002), Halifax (2003 in the finals), Drummondville (2006), Montreal (2010) and Quebec (2011). 

From 0-3 to 4-3 COMEBACK

• Coming back from a 0-3 deficit in a series, before taking it 4-3! This has happened five times in the QMJHL history.
• The last time it occurred was in 2015, when Val-d’Or surprised Baie-Comeau.
• Note that the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles have completed a comeback in the 2001 playoffs against Chicoutimi; but they could be on the losing side if the Olympiques complete the comeback tonight!
• It has been 32 years since a team overcame a 0-3 deficit in the 1st round. In 1985, Drummondville rallied against Trois-Rivières in the quarter-finals, at a time where only 8 of 11 teams made the playoffs.
• It’s only in 2012, where a team that had fewer points in the standings than its regular-season opponent, managed to return from a 0-3 deficit to win the series. Halifax (85 points) rallied back to defeat Quebec (93 points). This year the duel that concerns us, Cape Breton (82 points) vs Gatineau (70 points)…