Playoff Preview Round #1 (1 of 2)
The 47th QMJHL regular season ended on March 19th. The 16 teams that qualified for the postseason are known and 2 months of playoff hockey are about get underway. Starting now, the slate is wiped clean.
Drummondville (56 points) vs Rouyn-Noranda (113 points)
The Rouyn-Noranda Huskies won big in the regular season, with 54 victories in 68 games. In this first round match up, the Abitibi team has more than double the points in the standings than their adversary. What’s more, the Huskies are on a steak of 14-straight wins and have only suffered 2 regulation losses all season.
The Rouyn-Noranda offence fired on all cylinders this year, scoring a league-leading 302 goals. No fewer than 10 of their players have at least 43 points. Francis Perron heads this group with 102 to his credit. The acquisition from the Halifax Mooseheads of Timo Meier, who has 51 points in 29 outings with his new team, has solidified the offence. Defenceman Nikolas Brouillard plays the same kind of role, having taken part in last year’s finals as well as the MasterCard Memorial Cup with the Québec Remparts. Goalies Chase Marchand and Samuel Harvey have held the fort for the Huskies, boasting 29 and 25 wins respectively.
The Drummondville Voltigeurs earned the last possible spot to make the playoffs. Both head coach Martin Raymond and general director Dominic Ricard paid with the price of their jobs, for this difficult season. The team, now led by Jean-François Grégoire, has a regular season record of 27-39-2-0.
Michael Carcone, with 47 goals, finished the season among the league’s top scorers. His 89 points equals Alex Barré-Boulet. Rookie goaltender, Anthony Dumont-Bouchard played 48 games for his team, earning 16 wins.
The Huskies were victorious in 4 of the 6 match up between these two teams this year. 3 games were decided in overtime or the shootout. The last game between them was played on the 18th of March in Drummondville, and was taken 7-3 by the Huskies.
Head to Head this season
Rouyn-Noranda 7 @ Drummondville 3 (Mar 18 2016) Final
Rouyn-Noranda 4 @ Drummondville 5 (Feb 12 2016) Final SO
Drummondville 1 @ Rouyn-Noranda 2 (Dec 31 2015) Final OT1
Drummondville 1 @ Rouyn-Noranda 4 (Nov 26 2015) Final
Rouyn-Noranda 3 @ Drummondville 4 (Oct 10 2015) Final SO
Drummondville 2 @ Rouyn-Noranda 6 (Oct 2 2015) Final
Acadie-Bathurst (60 points) vs Saint John (90 points)
The Saint John Sea Dogs won the Maritime Division by a 7-point lead over the rival Moncton Wildcats. Matthew Highmore, Mathieu Joseph, and Sam Povorozniouk lead the Sea Dogs’ offence. During the trade period, Saint John acquired the services of veteran defenceman, Matt Murphy, who obtained 29 points in 37 outings with his new team. Ottawa Senators prospect, Thomas Chabot kept a steady pace with 45 points in 47 games. Murphy and Chabot are helped in their efforts by Luke Green and Jakub Zboril. Goaltender Marc-Antoine Turcotte was victorious in 27 matches.
The Acadie-Bathust Titan are making a return to the playoffs. Five of their forwards scored at least 50 points, two of those being rookies Vladimir Kuznetsov and Antoine Morand. Goalie Reilly Pickard had a good end to the season, when he was named goalie of the week, nationally. Pickard, a native of Halifax, played 58 games for his team this year.
The only 100% Maritime playoff series will see Joseph Veleno (SNB) and Antoine Morand (BAT), the two first choices of the last QMJHL draft, face off against one another.
Head to Head this season
Saint John 1 @ Acadie-Bathurst 2 (Mar 15 2016) Final OT1
Acadie-Bathurst 4 @ Saint John 7 (Mar 5 2016) Final
Acadie-Bathurst 3 @ Saint John 4 (Mar 1 2016) Final
Saint John 5 @ Acadie-Bathurst 3 (Jan 30 2016) Final
Saint John 5 @ Acadie-Bathurst 2 (Jan 9 2016) Final
Saint John 6 @ Acadie-Bathurst 5 (Dec 29 2015) Final SO
Acadie-Bathurst 6 @ Saint John 5 (Dec 28 2015) Final OT1
Acadie-Bathurst 3 @ Saint John 8 (Oct 22 2015) Final
Saint John 3 @ Acadie-Bathurst 4 (Sep 27 2015) Final
Blainville-Boisbriand (62 points) vs Val-d’Or (102 points)
The Val d-Or Foreurs were the season’s second best team, behind their Abitibi rivals, the Huskies. In 4th place in the standings because they were not a division winner, the Foreurs will confront the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada who sit in 13th.
For a third consecutive season, the Foreurs finished the regular season among the top 2 offensive teams in the Q. Anthony Beauregard, Anthony Richard, Nicolas Aubé-kubel, and Julien Gauthier made many a goalie pay the price this year. Czech, Jan Mandat, with his 64 points, also added his contribution to that quartet. Goalie Étienne Montpetit earned a league-best 39 wins. The Sallaberry-de-Valleyfield native goaltender guarded the net for the Foreurs last year up to the semi-finals.
While the team doesn’t give up a lot of goals, thanks to the efforts of Samuel Montembeault, the Blainville-Boibriand Armada have trouble scoring. The squad’s 171 goals for makes for the second worst offence in the QMJHL. Kristian Pospisil lead his team with 40 points. Having had more than a point per game last season, Philippe Sanche couldn’t do justice to his talent, being limited to only 35 outings this year, but still being able to collect 34 points. Despite only winning 17 of 47 starts, Montembeault had a goals against of 2.63; the fifth best such stat among league starters.
The Foreurs won 5 of the 6 encounters with their division rivals this season. The only Armada win was in overtime on October 20th.
Head to Head this season
Val-d’Or 5 @ Blainville-Boisbriand 4 (Feb 6 2016) Final
Blainville-Boisbriand 0 @ Val-d’Or 4 (Dec 31 2015) Final
Val-d’Or 3 @ Blainville-Boisbriand 1 (Dec 28 2015) Final
Blainville-Boisbriand 0 @ Val-d’Or 4 (Nov 8 2015) Final
Blainville-Boisbriand 3 @ Val-d’Or 2 (Oct 20 2015) Final OT1
Val-d’Or 3 @ Blainville-Boisbriand 1 (Oct 18 2015) Final
Charlottetown (77 points) vs Rimouski (79 points)
Despite the loss of several veterans, the Rimouski Océanic were able to obtain home-ice advantage for the first round of the playoffs. Newcomers Antoine Dufort-Plante and Dylan Montcalm, two players with QMJHL experience, finished top of team scoring. A lot of the Océanic’s success rests with goalie Louis-Philip Guindon who was the second most worked goaltender in the league this season. He sits 53 minutes of ice-time behind Étienne Montpetit. He is also second in the league with 32 wins.
The Océanic will have to keep their eye on the Charlottetown Islander’s Daniel Sprong. Since he returned from playing 18 games with the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Islanders climbed in the standings. Sprong collected 46 points in 33 matches. Acquired last December, Samuel Blais built on his strong start to the season with the Tigres, accumulating, 82 points in 63 games overall. Owner of 21 wins, goalie Mason McDonald carried 14 of his last 18 starts.
The Rimouski team had a tough end to their campaign. Before winning the last two games of the regular season, the team had gone 2-7. For their part, Charlottetown put the peddle to the metal, winning 7 straight and 12 of their last 14.
The two teams only met up on two occasions this season, each team taking a win.
Head to Head this season
Rimouski 1 @ Charlottetown 3 (Jan 9 2016) Final
Charlottetown 0 @ Rimouski 1 (Oct 4 2015) Final SO
