Inside the Numbers for Week #21

An historic milestone will be reached this weekend when Chicoutimi and Gatineau both surpass 3000 franchise-games played. Goalies Etienne Montpetit (PHOTO) and Mathieu Bellemare will soon be record holders. And Gilles Courteau is celebrating 30 years as QMJHL president.

CASTING HIS NET FOR RECORDS

• Etienne Montpetit – is about to completely rewrite the Val d’Or Foreurs goaltending record book. His current goals against average of 2.53 is threatening the 20-year-old club record of Sébastien Charpentier (2.7). Of course, we will have to wait until the end of the season to see how everything turns out.
• 32 victories – that’s the number he will need to match the team record held by Roberto Luongo. Montpetit is only 2 wins away from equalling that famous Foreurs alumnus and 3 from passing him. Originally form Valleyfield, Montpetit has won his last 6 starts. We should mention that his teammate, Dereck Baribeau is also on a tear, having recently had 8 games without a loss for a season scorecard of 10-2.
• .912 – With his current save percentage of .910, Montpetit might have it in him to beat Maxime Daigneault’s 2003-4 record of .912. Just as with his quest for the goals against title, we will have to see what happens over the next 5 weeks.
• Jacques-Plante Trophy – in the hunt also for the best goals against in the Q this season, Montpetit is currently outpaced only by Chase Marchand of the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies (2.35). A fight to the finish.

Val-d’Or Records

Most Wins in a Single season
Rank	Goalie	Season	Record
1	Roberto Luongo	96-97	32
2	Etienne Montpetit	15-16	30
3	Roberto Luongo	97-98	27

Best Goals Against Average by a Goaltender in a Single Season, who has Played more than 40% of that Season’s Playing Time
Rank	Goalie	Season	Record
1	Etienne Montpetit	15-16	2.53 *
2	Sébastien Charpentier	95-96	2.70
3	Maxime Daigneault	03-04	2.92
4	Roberto Luongo	97-98	3.01
5	Maxime Daigneault	02-03	3.07
* = Incomplete Season

Best Save Percentage for a Goaltender in a Single Season, who has Played more than 40% of that Season’s Playing Time
Rank	Goalie	Season	Record
1	Maxime Daigneault	03-04	0.912
2	Sébastien Charpentier	95-96	0.910
	Etienne Montpetit	15-16	0.910*
4	Raffaele D`Orso	07-08	0.908
5	Roberto Luongo	96-97	0.902
* = Incomplete Season

Most Consecutive Starts Without a Defeat by a Goaltender in a Single Season
Rank	Goalie	From	To	Record
1	Etienne Montpetit	2015-11-01	15-12-17	12 (12-0-0)
	Francis Larivée	1995-09-22	95-10-26	12 (9-0-1)
3	Roberto Luongo	1996-11-22	96-12-22	10 (8-0-1)
4	Simon Lajeunesse	2001-01-08	01-02-05	9 (9-0-0)
	François Tremblay	2013-02-05	13-03-15	9 (6-0-0)
6	Dereck Baribeau	2015-11-14	…	8 (8-0-0) **
	Simon Lajeunesse	2001-03-12	01-03-12	8 (6-0-1)
	Keven Bouchard	2014-03-15	14-03-15	8 (7-0-0)
** = Active Streak

A DAZZLING ROOKIE GOALIE

• Mathieu Bellemare (Gatineau) – has started to write some history of his own. Now with 24 wins to his name, he’s gotten his work done, passing the Olympiques team record of 21 victories by a rookie. Other marks might be his soon too.
• Shutouts by a rookie- on Wednesday he equalled Frédéric Malette and Gabriel Bouthillette’s Gatineau record for rookie shutouts when he earned his third such win in a 6-0 rout of Halifax.
• League record – The QMJHL record for a first-year net minder is 4 shutouts, a mark set by Olivier Roy for Cape Breton in 2007-08 and equalled by Louis Philip Guindon of Drummondville in 2012-13.
• 37 victories – With only 15 games left in the regular season it will be difficult (if not quite impossible) for Bellemare to earn the 13 victories he would need to equal the record of 37 rookie wins, set by Richard Sévigny and Tony Haladuick.
• GA of 2.48 – will Bellemare be able to lower his goals against just a bit more, in order to dethrone Martin Biron, who with his GA of 2.48 who has held that title for 21 years now? Bellemare (2.54), like his teammate Mark Grametbauer (2.61) could both, with good performances, get there by the end of the season.

QMJHL Records

Best Goals Against by a Rookie Goaltender in a Single Season
Rank	Goalie	Team(s)	Season	Record
1	Martin Biron	Beauport	94-95	2.48
2	Ondrej Pavelec	Cape Breton	05-06	2.51
3	Mathieu Bellemare	Gatineau	15-16	2.54*
4	Maxime Joyal	Quebec	04-05	2.61
	Mark Grametbauer	Gatineau	15-16	2.61*
6	Alexei Volkov	Halifax	98-99	2.70
7	Sébastien Charpentier	Laval	94-95	2.73
	Jean-Michel Filiatrault	Victoriaville-Quebec	02-03	2.73
9	Brandon Whitney	Victoriaville	11-12	2.74
	François Brassard	Quebec	11-12	2.80
* = Incomplete Season

Most Wins by a Rookie Goaltender in a Single Season
Rank	Goalie	Team	Season	Record
1	Richard Sévigny	Sherbrooke	75-76	37
	Tony Haladuick	Laval	82-83	37
3	Daniel Turgeon	Chicoutimi	79-80	34
4	Julien Ellis	Shawinigan	03-04	32
	Zachary Fucale	Halifax	11-12	32
6	Raynald Bélanger	Shawinigan	69-70	31
	Frédéric Chabot	Drummondville	86-87	31
8	Patrice Paré	Montréal	79-80	30
9	Martin Biron	Beauport	94-95	29
	Maxime Joyal	Quebec	04-05	29
23	Mathieu Bellemare	Gatineau	15-16	24

Most Shutouts by a Rookie Goaltender in a Single Season
Rank	Goalie	Team	Season	Record
1	Olivier Roy	Cape Breton	07-08	4
	Louis-Philip Guindon	Drummondville	12-13	4
3	Frédéric Malette	Hull	97-98	3
	Gabriel Bouthillette	Gatineau	03-04	3
	Mathieu Bellemare	Gatineau	15-16	3
12 others tied with 3 shutouts

OFFENSIVES PERFORMANCES

• Nicolas Aubé-Kubel (Val-d’Or) – Since mid-January the Philadelphia Flyers 2^nd round pick has had the pedal to the metal. With 7 goals and 9 assists, he has racked up 16 points in 7 games and has a +/- of +13. He is also only 1 point away from his 70^th of the season. Like his teammates Anthony Beauregard and Anthony Richard (both with 77 points) he is scoring at a pace of 1.5 points per match. The only other club that can boast 3 players accumulating points at that pace is the Shawinigan Cataractes, who have Dmytro Timashov (1.78), Anthony Beauvillier (1.71) and Alexis D’Aoust (1.51). The Foreurs will be paying visit to the Cataractes tonight 7:30 PM at the Gervais Auto Centre. There, Beauvillier will be attempting to find the back of the net for a 5^th straight game.
• Mathieu Joseph (Saint John) – 14 points in his last 7 outings, and a superb differential of +11.
• Nathan Noel (Saint John) – Joseph’s teammate will be looking to take part in the scoring for a 17^th consecutive game this Saturday, when Saint John plays host to the Baie-Comeau Drakkar. Noel is slowly moving in on the team record of 22 straight games with a point, set by Zack Phillips in 2011-12.
• Michael Carcone (Drummondville) – It would be hard not to say something about the current performance of the 19-year-old forward. 9 goals in his last 9 games. In that streak, he has had 3 2-goal games. He has just recently become the first 40-goal scorer in the Q this season.
• Evgeny Svechnikov (Cape Breton) – he has been productive in his last 9 games: 16 points, 7 of which were goals. His teammates Michael Joly (14 points) and Maxim Lazarev (12 points) are also on a tear. As for Giovanni Fiore, he has been padding his record, with 8 points in the Eagles’ 3 most recent games. Cape Breton has scored 24 times in 4 matches, adding 7 to their points in the standings and giving them a recent record of 3-0-1-0, against Halifax, Charlottetown, Shawinigan and Baie-Comeau.

Best Point Average Per Game in 2015-16
Rank	Name	Team	GP	G	A	PTS	+/-	Pts/GP
1	Conor Garland	Mon	48	31	76	107	22	2.23
2	Dmytro Timashov	Sha	41	19	54	73	23	1.78
3	Anthony Beauvillier	Sha	31	25	28	53	17	1.71
4	Francis Perron	Rou	47	34	46	80	31	1.70
5	Evgeny Svechnikov	Cap	38	25	36	61	17	1.61
6	Anthony Richard	VdO	50	34	43	77	33	1.54
7	Nicolas Aubé-Kubel	VdO	45	32	37	69	44	1.53
8	Alexis D’Aoust	Sha	51	34	43	77	28	1.51
9	Anthony Beauregard	VdO	52	22	55	77	31	1.48
10	Timo Meier	Rou	36	20	33	53	18	1.47

MILESTONE

• Serge Beausoleil (Rimouski) – He is one win short for reaching the magic number of 200 victories. Tonight when the Moncton Wildcats will be at the Rimouski Coliseum, Beausoleil can achieve the milestone at his 320th game behind the bench. What is most remarkable is that he could become the second fastest in league history to reach that mark, between the record holder Patrick Roy (200 wins in 315 games) and Orval Tessier (200 in 322).

QMJHL – Fewest games to reach 200 wins for a head coach
Coach	Team(s)	#200 Win	Nb Seasons	Nb Games	WIN%
Patrick Roy	QUE	200	5e saison	315	0,635
Orval Tessier	COR/QUE	200	5e saison	322	0,672
Michel Bergeron	TR	200	5e saison	327	0,665
Denis Francoeur	SHA	200	5e saison	336	0,631
Serge Beausoleil	RIM	199	5e saison	319	0,624
Dominique Ducharme	MTL/HAL	194	5e saison	320	0,606

WHAT A COMEBACK AT THE COLISÉE DESJARDINS!

• 7 goals in a single period – the Victoriaville Tigres were trailing Quebec 4-0 this last Wednesday, but were able to show their character and especially their opportunism, when they scored 7 unanswered goals in 11 minutes and 47 seconds in the latter part of the 3^rd 7-4, quite the way to win a 5^th consecutive game in front of their fans. They also equalled their club record for number of goals in a single period. 14 of the 18 Tigres players had at least 1 point in this memorable comeback.
• Chicoutimi – remember that in October, the Saguenéens scored 8 times in the same game, the league record being 10 goals.
• This weekend – The Tigres will do battle at home against Halifax (Friday) and Cape Breton (Sunday). The match up against the screaming Eagles could well determine who between Victoriaville (9^th place, 59 points, 52 games played) and Cape Breton (8^th place, 60 points, 55 games played) will have home ice advantage for the 1^st round of the playoffs. These two teams could well meet again in that 1^st Stay tuned…

3000^TH REGULAR-SEASON GAME

• 1973-74 – was the very first season for the two great QMJHL franchises based in Chicoutimi and Gatineau. After Shawinigan, these two teams have seen more Junior Major games than any other, over the last 43 years.
• Gatineau – tonight the Olympiques will treat their fans with several gifts to help commemorate their 3000^th franchise game. Having recently marked their 1500^th team win, Benoit Groulx’s boys will be hoping to earn their 20^th home victory this season in 28 tries, when they host the Quebec Remparts. At this pace, the Olympiques way well record a 9^th season of 90 or more points, and this in one of the leagues most competitive divisions.

City		GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	PTS	WIN%
Hull / Gatineau	GRAND TOTAL	2999	1502	1360	137	12600	12168	3225	0.524

• Chicoutimi – as for the Saguenéens, their 3000^th game will be played on the road this Sunday in Saint John. Rénald Nepton has helped with almost almost all games in team history, from his start as equipment attendant up to his current role as Director of Hockey Operations. It’s a phenomenal feat to spend 40 years working for the players of one organization. There will be a celebration for the fans of the 3000^th franchise game when the team returns home from Rimouski to the Georges-Vézina Centre on February 18^th. Among the many other surprises, the list of prizes up for draw for fans present that evening, will be a snowmobile!

City		GP	W	D	T	GF	GA	PTS	Win%
Chicoutimi	GRAND TOTAL	2997	1401	1459	137	12343	12707	3049	0.490

A LITTLE HISTORY

• Gilles Courteau – February 13^th, 1986, that’s the date that the current Commissioner of the QMJHL took his seat in the league’s administrative offices. He became the 10^th commissioner in Q history, succeeding Dr. Guy Morrissette.
• 30 years at the head of the league – Over these many seasons he has seen the QMJHL grow, evolve and prosper. Concern for the wellbeing of the players has always been a priority for the man who has seen his role of President morph into that of commissioner just before the start of the 2001-02 season. One of his great achievements remains the birth of the Maritime teams in the 1990’s.
• Passionate – That’s the word to describe Courteau, a man who has put in the long hard hours serving the interests of the QMJHL. He has been associated with Junior Major hockey in Quebec for 40 years, since the 1975-76 season. Courteau started this relationship with the league, first as a statistician for the now defunct Trois-Rivières Draveurs, later becoming the league’s Administrative Director.

Translation: Richard Dumas