Inside the Numbers for Week #24

The suspense surrounding the Huskies’ and Foreurs’ dream seasons is ending and all of Rouyn-Noranda can hardly wait to see their boys win their 2^nd regular-season championship in team history. With 87 points, Pierre-Luc Dubois (PHOTO) is opening eyes – including those of NHL scouts.

DIVISION CHAMPS

• 1,2, & 3 guaranteed – again this season, teams finishing at the top of their division will automatically clinch 1 of the 3 top spots overall.
• Western Division – The key match to decide who would end up first overall, was played last Tuesday in Val-d’Or. The Huskies, down 5-0, came back in spectacular fashion, scoring six unanswered goals, the last in overtime, earning their 6^th straight win. Gilles Bouchard’s squad also bought themselves a 5-point lead in the overall standings. Val-d’Or (92 points) and Rouyn-Noranda (97) both have 8 games left in their regular season. The Foreurs and Huskies will meet one last time before season’s end, on Wednesday, March 9^th in Rouyn. It has to be said that the Foreurs have had the upper had so far in 2015-16, with a record of 5-2-2-0 against the Huskies, but the hill will be just a little steeper to climb after the above heart breaker.
• Eastern Division – The Shawinigan Cataractes (84 points) need only 2 more points to clinch their division title. In the next few days, the Rimouski Océanic’s chances of repeating as division champs will likely fall to zero.
• Maritime Division – With 2 games in hand and a lead of 8 points over their nearest competition, the Moncton Wildcats (76 points), it doesn’t look like anything will stop the Saint John Sea Dogs (84 points) from winning their 4^th division title since they came into the QMJHL is 2005-2006. Saint John and Moncton have 2 important match-ups next week. The two clubs clash Wednesday, March 9^th at the Moncton Coliseum, and then again 3 days later at Harbour Station. Slender hope for the Wildcats, who were in first place in the division at the start of January, with a 10-point lead. Since January 1^st, the Sea Dogs have truly been remarkable, with a record of 18-3-1, and the best point percentage in the league; 0.841.

WHAT OUR WEB VISITORS ARE SAYING

• Regular season champion – in the last few days, our question on theqmjhl.ca was: Who do you think will win the Jean-Rougeau Trophy, given to the regular-season champions?
• Rouyn-Noranda – The Huskies were your favourites to take the regular-season title. Even before the already famous match of last Tuesday, already more than two-thirds of those who answered the poll believed that Rouyn-Noranda’s chances (67%) were better than Val-d’Or’s (25%).

HIGH PERFORMANCE

• Pierre-Luc Dubois (Cape Breton) –more than ever, he is on the scouts’ radar. In his 4 last games, the 6’3”, 202 lbs forward has been producing on offense: 12 points; 5 of those goals. On February 27^th in an 8-1 victory over Val-d’Or, he had his 2^nd 5-point game of the season. He has earned 13 outings of 3 points or more since mid-September. This hopeful for the 2016 NHL draft, totalled 23 of his 37 goals this season at home, in 27 matches. He is only 3 away from the 90-point mark, a feat that no other 17-year-old player has achieved since the arrival of Cape Breton in the league in 1997. As for the team point record held by Dominic Noël (105, 2001-02), only Dubois himself can answer if he can beat it before the end of the season. He needs 18 points in the 6 remaining games, an average of 3 points per game, which is the pace he has been keeping his last 4 games!

Most Single-Season Points by a Screaming Eagles Player
Pos	Player	Season	Record
1	Dominic Noël	01-02	105
2	Ryan Walsh	97-98	101
3	Cam Fergus	06-07	98
4	Dean Ouellet	07-08	97
5	James Sheppard	06-07	96
6	Stuart MacRae	01-02	94
7	Olivier Proulx	00-01	93
8	Kevin Cloutier	00-01	92
9	Luke Adam	09-10	90
10	Paul Alexander McIlveen	06-07	89
…	Pierre-Luc Dubois	15-16	87

• Francis Perron (Rouyn-Noranda) – could be considered the Huskies engine this season. With 97 points, he has 29 more than his nearest teammate, Timo Meier (68). As regular as a clock, he has collected at least 1 point in 50 of his 55, 2015-16 games. He has 33 outings of 2 points or more! Three days ago against the Foreurs, he was involved in the scoring on 5 different occasions; a new personal record (1 goal, 4 assists).
• Loïk Léveillé (Cape Breton) – with 14 goals this season (3^rd amongst defencemen), this d-man with a powerful shot, could equal the Eagles’ record for most goals by a defenceman. The mark of 19 established by Jérémie Beaudry 2 years ago, would seem to be within his reach – but he only has 6 regular-season games left to get it done. After having amassed his 100^th lifetime QMJHL point this last weekend, he can boast of having quite the February; 4 goals and 7 assists with a differential of +10.
• Vincent Lanoue (Victoriaville) – picked up by the Foreurs in a mid-season trade, he has since proved the Tigres good judgement. He has earned 20 points in 27 matches in his new colours, and was one of the leagues best defencemen in February, producing 10 points; 2 goals, 8 assists and a +/- of +8 in 12 games.
• Alexandre Carrier (Gatineau) – Used in every situation by his coach, Benoit Groulx, the 19-year-old defenceman, property of the NHL’s Nashville Predators, has had a very interesting second half of the season. In his 24 last games, the Olympiques captain has racked up 23 points, 8 of those goals, and proved himself one of the best on defence in the league, with a differential of +20 over the last 2 months. Wednesday, against Baie-Comeau, he had his first QMJHL 2-goal game, earning his 9^th and 10^th goals of the season.
• Samuel Girard (Shawinigan) – with 13 points in his last 10 outings with the Cataractes (2+11, +6), the 17-year-old has just moved into 1^st place in the whole Canadian Hockey League for assists by a defenseman (55). His total of 62 points before Thursday’s games had him in 2^nd place in the CHL. As you can see in the table below, he is one of the rare d-men to have an average of over 1 point per game.

Canadian hockey League – Most Points Among Defencemen in 2015-1016
Table prepared before the games of Wednesday, March 2nd.
Pos	Player		TEAM	GP	G	A	PTS	PPG
1	Andrew Nielsen	WHL	LET	62	16	48	64	1.03
2	Samuel Girard	QMJHL	Sha	59	7	55	62	1.05
3	Jake Bean	WHL	CAL	61	22	37	59	0.97
	Macoy Erkamps	WHL	BDN	63	10	49	59	0.94
5	Ethan Bear	WHL	SEA	60	17	41	58	0.97
6	Ivan Provorov	WHL	BDN	53	14	42	56	1.06
7	Nikolas Brouillard	QMJHL	Rou	47	15	40	55	1.17
	* Cam Dineen	OHL	NB	59	12	43	55	0.93
9	Parker Wotherspoon	WHL	T.C	62	11	43	54	0.87
10	Travis Sanheim	WHL	CAL	43	10	43	53	1.23
	Rasmus Andersson	OHL	BAR	56	7	46	53	0.95
12	Joe Hicketts	WHL	VIC	52	8	44	52	1
13	Frédéric Allard	QMJHL	Chi	57	13	38	51	0.89
14	Brennan Menell	WHL	VAN	62	7	42	49	0.79
	Jesse Lees	WHL	P.A	63	20	29	49	0.78
	* Caleb Jones	WHL	POR	63	10	39	49	0.78
17	* Mikhail Sergachev	OHL	WSR	59	14	33	47	0.8
	* Jack Dougherty	WHL	POR	59	10	37	47	0.8
19	Marc McNulty	WHL	M.J	55	9	36	45	0.82
	Carl Neill	QMJHL	She	56	7	38	45	0.8
	Jakob Chychrun	OHL	SAR	57	10	35	45	0.79
22	Jason Fram	WHL	SPO	52	11	33	44	0.85
	David Quenneville	WHL	M.H	56	9	35	44	0.79
	Matt Murphy	QMJHL	SNB	59	8	36	44	0.75

RACE FOR THE JACQUES-PLANTE TROPHY

• Eligibility – to become known as the goaltender who at the end of season, had maintained the best goals against average, he has to have played at least 1632 minutes in net, equivalent to 40% of the season’s 68 games.
• Philippe Cadorette (Shawinigan) – currently has as goals against of 2.52 which would seem to put him in 4th place in this category, but by doing a little math you can see that that the Cataractes new goalie is not eligible to win the Jacques-Plante trophy. In fact, if he takes part in all his team’s games from now until the end of the regular season, his total of minutes played would come out to around 1613, putting him about 1 period of play shy of the minimum required. Let’s just say that it would take 4 games going into overtime to give him hope of getting his name on that trophy – one that eluded him in his 4 seasons with Baie-Comeau.
• Chase Marchand (Rouyn-Noranda) – on the sidelines for several games, his average of 2.45 is the best in the league. Otherwise, Mathieu Bellemare (2.45, GAT) just seized 1^st place on Wedesday. His teammate, Mark Grametbauer (2.49, GAT) is also more than ever in the hunt
• Julio Billia (Chicoutimi) – To some people, he is goalie of the year, with his average of 2.68 (4^th) and his save percentage of .917 (1^st).

RECORD

• Conor Garland (Moncton) – The Moncton team record of 326 lifetime points is in danger. Sébastien Roger established the record in 1998-99 but the one and only Conor Garland could pass him into the history books before the end of this campaign. With 316 points and a pace of 2 per game this season, nobody doubts that the Wildcats #8 will be in overdrive to rewrite another team record. The Arizona Coyotes hopeful will be looking for his 100^th league goal as he plays his 200^th regular-season game, when he faces off against Drummondville tonight.

Most Lifetime Points by a Moncton Player
Pos	Player	Season	Record
1	Sébastien Roger	1995>>1999	326
2	Conor Garland	2012>>2016	316
3	Steve Bernier	2001>>2005	313
4	Simon Laliberté	1996>>2000	284
5	Alex Saulnier	2009>>2013	268
6	Allain Saulnier	2009>>2013	250
7	Ivan Barbashev	2012>>2015	225
8	Marek Hrivik	2009>>2012	204

Milestone

• Alexandre Bélanger (Cape Breton) – The veteran 20-year-old Screaming Eagles goaltender needs only 3 more wins to reach the magic number 100, since he started in the league with the Huskies in 2011-12. He is currently in 16^th spot all-time, matching José Théodore and Etienne Marcoux. Only 11 goalies have so far been able to collect 100 wins; the current active leader being Philippe Cadorette (120, BAC/SHA). Bélanger has won 27 of his 54 outings this season and has spent more time in net than anyone else, with 2973 minutes of play – ahead of Etienne Montpetit (2872, VDO).

Most Lifetime Victories by a QMJHL Goaltender
Pos	Goalie	Team(s)	Season	Record
1	Jacques Cloutier	Trois-Rivières	1976>>1980	142
2	Alex Dubeau	Shawinigan-Moncton	2010>>2015	138
3	Zachary Fucale	Halifax-Quebec	2011>>2015	134
4	Olivier Roy	Cape Breton-Acadie-Bathurst	2007>>2011	123
5	Philippe Cadorette	Baie-Comeau-Shawinigan	2011>>2016	120
6	Adam Russo	Acadie-Bathurst	2000>>2004	110
7	Louis-Philip Guindon	Drummondville-Rimouski	2012>>2016	106
8	Mathieu Chouinard	Shawinigan	1996>>2000	104
9	Jean-François Labbé	Trois-Rivières-Hull-Sherbrooke	1989>>1993	103
10	Maxime Ouellet	Quebec-Rouyn-Noranda	1997>>2001	101
11	François Brassard	Quebec-Gatineau-Cape Breton	2011>>2015	100
12	Nicholas Champion	Acadie-Bathurst-Rouyn-Noranda-Lewiston	2007>>2011	98
	Éric Lafrance	Hull	1999>>2003	98
	David Tremblay	Hull-Gatineau	2001>>2006	98
	Ryan Mior	P.E.I.-Gatineau	2003>>2008	98
16	José Théodore	St-Jean-Hull	1992>>1996	97
	Etienne Marcoux	Montréal-Blainville-Boisbriand	2009>>2014	97
	Alexandre Bélanger	Rouyn-Noranda-Cape Breton	2011>>2016	97

SPOTLIGHT OF THE WEEK 

• Pierre-Olivier Joseph (Charlottetown) – this willowy 6’, 150 lbs defenceman has impressed more than a few. The 16-year-old has proved himself to be agile and gifted, with hockey-sense. His first pass to re-launch the attack is usually made with above-average accuracy. His +2 in 42 games shows his effectiveness in the defensive end he has collected 7 points since his recall at he beginning of November form the St-Hyacinthe Gaulois (Midget AAA). He is a nice asset for the Islanders, who selected him in the 5^th round of the draft last June. This Sunday at 3PM he will get to see his brother Mathieu Joseph (69 points) up close, when Mathieu and his Saint John Sea Dogs pay visit to Charlottetown.

Translation: Richard Dumas