Sidney Crosby and Jérémy Duchesne, players of the week in the QMJHL
BOUCHERVILLE, Monday, March 21, 2005 (QMJHL) Today, for the last time this season, the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League chose its offensive and defensive players of the week for the period beginning Monday, March 14th and ending Sunday, March 20th 2005. They are Sidney Crosby, from the Océanic de Rimouski, and Jérémy Duchesne, from the Halifax Mooseheads.
Once again, Sidney Crosby, striker with the Océanic de Rimouski, is selected as best offensive player of the week. Crosby scored 2 goals and had 9 assists for a total of 11 points in 3 games.
For Crosby, the week started with a game of 6 points, 1 goal and 5 assists, in a win 7 1 against the Lewiston MAINEiacs. In Bathurst, on Friday, Rimouski won the game 5 1 against the Titan even though the defensive restricted Crosby to 2 assists and the players from Rimouski to 25 shots on goal. At the end of the game, Crosby had a total of 300 points in career, after having played only 120 games. He thus has an average of 2.50 points per game. The Océanic seized the opportunity to become the 3rd team in history to play 27 consecutive games without a loss, the two other teams being the Éperviers de Sorel (1973-1974) and the Remparts de Québec (1998-1999). Three teams now hold this record.
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<a href=" http://www.lhjmq.qc.ca/old_lhjmq/statistiques/saison0405/SEQ_SANS_DEFAITE_RIMOUSKI_200405_html2.htm" class="lnkBase10px"> CLICK here to find the comparisons between these three great teams of the QMJHL history!</a>
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But that did not stop Rimouski from going on. On Sunday, as they were playing home, once again facing the Titan, Doris Labonté’s players really had a good time. In a win 6 4 against Acadie-Bathurst, the Océanic de Rimouski established a new record of 28 games in a row without a loss.
As for Crosby, he scored his 66th goal of the season, and he added 2 assists to his score sheet. As a result, Sidney ends the season as leading scorer for a second consecutive year. He will be given the Jean-Béliveau trophy at the Golden Puck Awards Gala that will be held on Wednesday, April 6th, in Montreal. He ends the season with 66 goals and 102 assists for a total of 168 points, and he becomes the 3rd player in the QMJHL to win 2 consecutive leading scorer awards, after Jean-François Sauvé (1978-1979 & 1979-1980) and Guy Rouleau (1984-1985 & 1985-1986).
Crosby also became the 3rd player to be given a leading scorer trophy with more than 50 points ahead of his closer opponent. He ends the season with 168 points, 54 points ahead from his teammate Dany Roussin (114). In 1983-1984, Mario Lemieux (282) had won the leading scorer award with 112 points ahead of Jacques Goyette (170), and in 1970-1971, Guy Lafleur (209) had 65 points more than his teammate, Michel Brière (144).
The Océanic ends its regular season ranking 1st in the general standings which entitles it to a bye for the 2nd round of playoffs, on account of its 1st rank in the division championship, as well as Halifax (Maritimes) and Rouyn-Noranda (West).
Sidney Crosby was preferred to both his trio teammates, Marc-Antoine Pouliot (3-6-2-8) and Dany Roussin (3-5-3-8), as well as to Guillaume Latendresse, from the Voltigeurs de Drummondville (3-3-5-8).
The honour for best defensive player of the week goes to the goaltender from the Halifax Mooseheads, Jérémy Duchesne. In 3 games, his score sheet totals 2 wins and 1 tie, goals against average of 1.63 and efficiency percentage of .952, after facing 105 shots!
In a full house with over 10,595 spectators at the Halifax Metro Centre, the Mooseheads won the game 4 0 against the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles even though the later were the leaders for shots on goal, 42-31. The shutout was added to Jérémy Duchesne’s score sheet, and he got the 1st star of the game.
In a win 3 2 against the P.E.I. Rocket, on Friday, Duchesne stopped the goal 23 times and was named 2nd star of the game. It is to be noted that his time sequence without giving a goal has finally come to an end after 113 minutes and 28 seconds when Pierre-André Bureau, form the Rocket, scored in the middle of the 3rd period.
Finally, on Sunday, in Cape Breton, in a tie 3 3, Duchesne was again given the 2nd star of the game for his brilliant performance as he stopped 35 shots, when his own team shot only 22 times against the other goaltender.
The Halifax Mooseheads ended the regular calendar ranking 2nd in the general standings, 2 points behind the Océanic de Rimouski. They can certainly get over it as the Mooseheads win the Robert-Lebel trophy awarded to the team with the best defensive average of the circuit (2.42) at the end of the regular season. Moncton comes at the 2nd rank with 2.47.
Since the Mooseheads obtained Jérémy Duchesne from the Tigres de Victoriaville, the goaltender kept a score sheet of 12-0-2, a goals against average of 1.50 as well as an exceptional save percentage of .942 for the 18 games in which he participated.
Jérémy Duchesne was preferred to David Tremblay, from the Olympiques de Gatineau (3 games played, 184.44 minutes played, goals against average of 2.27 and efficiency percentage of .918), to Jean-Michel Bolduc, from the Océanic de Rimouski (3-0-5-5) and to Martin Houle, from the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles (2 games played, 1 win, 1 tie, 125 minutes played, goals against average of 1.44 and efficiency percentage of .942).
