The QMJHL’s Road to Shawinigan
By Aaron Bell
When the Windsor Spitfires became the first team in 15 years to win back-to-back MasterCard Memorial Cup championships in 2009 and 2010 you can bet that the Saint John Sea Dogs were paying attention.
The Sea Dogs won the national championship last year in Mississauga and are loaded up to take another shot at it when the QMJHL hosts the 2012 MasterCard Memorial Cup tournament in Shawinigan in May.
The Sea Dogs recently put together a 17-game winning streak, the longest in the CHL this season. They sit two points ahead of the Shawinigan Cataractes for first overall in the QMJHL standings and are looking to claim their third straight regular season title as the season wraps up this weekend.
The Sea Dogs have 14 players back that won the Memorial Cup last year, including tournament MVP Jonathan Huberdeau and top scorers Zack Phillips, Tomas Jurco and Danick Gauthier.
“All we have to do is move the puck and we’re a lot better than most teams, skill-wise,” veteran forward Ryan Tesink told The Cape Breton Post. “We’re so deep and every line has a lot of skill.”
Other teams are taking notice too.
“You look at their top three lines and they’re obviously prepared for a long playoff run,” said Cape Breton Screaming Eagles defenceman Stephen Woodworth after a 9-1 loss that gave the Sea Dogs their 14th straight win on Feb. 25.
The Sea Dogs and Screaming Eagles are positioned to be first round playoff opponents.
“Once they get going in the offensive zone, they can be tough to play against,” Woodworth said. “They’re a team that feeds off turnovers. That’s how they manage their game. In the neutral zone, they’re very aggressive and they’re looking for any turnover to try and go in on the attack.”
Despite all of that success this season, the Sea Dogs do have some concerns after dropping a pair of losses last weekend, including a 4-3 shootout loss to the Chicoutimi Sagueneens on Friday that ended the streak and then they dropped a 6-2 loss to Shawinigan on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the Cataractes have won seven of their past 10 games, including Sunday’s win over the Sea Dogs and are just two points behind Saint John for the league lead with two games left this weekend.
The Cataractes already know that they will be playing for the Memorial Cup in May but are gearing up for an extended playoff run leading up to that and are anxious to win the QMJHL title along the way.
Shawinigan is led offensively by Russian winger Anton Zlobin, who has 39 goals and 74 points in 64 games this season while overage centre Michael Chaput has 21 goals and 61 points in 55 games. Forwards Yannick Veilleux (26-29-55), Michael Bournival (29-25-54), Kirill Kabanov (21-32-53) and Peter Sakaris (20-32-52) all have at least 50 points this season to help Shawinigan match depth with Saint John.
The Cataractes also bolstered their lineup prior to the trade deadline with the addition of star defencemen Brandon Gormley and Morgan Ellis, who scored a goal and added three assists against the Screaming Eagles – his former club – in late February.