QUEBEC CITY, P.Q. — Now that the grueling regular season is behind, let’s have a look at what most people call the true season, the playoffs. A total of 17 teams in the QMJHL played 68 games each in regular season to eliminate one team, and the unfortunate one that has to put away his equipment sooner than expected is the Prince Edward Island Rocket.
Beginning on March 22nd, 16 teams will begin their march to the President Cup, the emblem to the QMJHL championship earning one of four places in next Memorial Cup in Shawinigan. Since the Memorial Cup is in Shawinigan two QMJHL teams will earns places in the Memorial Cup tournament, the President Cup winner and the finalist.
Only two series will begin on Thursday. Drummondville Voltigeurs will come to Quebec facing the Remparts on Thursday and second game on Monday March 26 due to a circle du soleil show on Friday and Saturday.
The other series will be between the Gatineau Olympiques will beginning their series in Blainville-Boisbriand facing the Armada. All other series Cape Breton vs. Saint John, Rouyn-Noranda vs. Shawinigan, Baie-Comeau vs. Victoriaville, Halifax vs. Moncton, Val-d’Or vs. Rimouski, Acadie-Bathurst vs. Chicoutimi will begin on Friday 23rd.
Both series that begin on Thursday night should certainly be interesting at more than one level. Lots of animosity happened in last meeting between the Gatineau Olympiques and Blainville-Boisbriand. Victim of a knee-to-knee hit on one of his best player Tomas Hyka, Gatineau head coach Benoit Grouxl had been suspended for two games after throwing things on ice.
As a result of the incident, Hyka won’t take part in the first game on Thursday night and he might be out of the entire first round. Season series between the two teams ended in Armada favor 6-1-1-0. On the other end, playing in Robert Guertin Arena in the Olympiques home for games 3 and 4 won’t be easy.
Having won only 8 games in 34 on the road in regular season, it would be interesting to see if Gatineau will be able to win one of two games in Blainville-Boisbriand territory winning 20 of their 34 games in front of their fans. Emotions, considering the rivalry between these two teams, the team that will control their emotions the best, be able to stay out of penalty box will get serious chance to get to the next round.
In goal, another interesting battle between Etienne Marcoux of the Blainville-Boisbriand who ended as fifth best goaltenders in the league with a 2.71 goals against average and 0.912 save percentage, compare to Francois Lacerte ranking 16 in the league with 3.57 goals against average and 0.891 save percentage.
Offensively speaking, Blainville-Boisbriand ended with 258 goals for, Gatineau scores only 223. Defensively Blainville-Boisbriand also got the edge, 219 versus 274 over Gatineau.
Prediction Blainville-Boisbriand will get the edge in six.
Winning 3 out of 4 meetings during the regular season the Drummondville Voltigeurs come to Quebec confident they can at least bringing back 1 victory out of first two games in the series beginning in Quebec.
Stopping two Quebec winning streak (first one after 9 consecutive wins the other after 8 games) the Voltigeurs seem to get Quebec number. Being the negligee, in that series it didn’t disturb Drummondville head coach Mario Duhamel. His team getting the underdog role, the Voltigeurs head coach is at ease with that. He just hope his team will go in Quebec be able to still one of first two games bringing back the ice advantage for game 3 and 4 in Drummondville.
If Dominic Graham ( 3.09 G.AG. and 0.889 save percentage) will get the nod to start the series, In Quebec Patrick Roy needed to be convinced before giving the nod to his more experience man Louis Domingue. Knowing the margin of error will be very thin, Domingue need to step up his game if he doesn’t want to see his coach to pull the trigger on him.
On defense, veteran defensemen Vincent Barnard, Mikael Tam, Martin Lefebvre will get the heavy load to make sure Domingue will be able to see the puck to make the save, and to make first great pass to re-launch Quebec offense.
Offensively Mikhail Grigorenko, Frederick Roy and Anthony Duclair will have the task of leading Quebec offense but they will need support from other lines. Gabriel Desjardins, Michael McNamee, Adam Erne, Alexandre Contois and Jeremie Malouin will have to bring great offensive contributions.
Drummondville defensemen Nikolas Brouillard, Charles-David Beaudouin, Nappassis Andre and Raman Hrabarenka, will get the task of trying to contain Quebec first line and help Graham to make the first save.
Offensively, Drummondville will count Marc-Olivier Brouillard, Alex Emond and Andre Bouvet-Morrissette to get the Voltigeurs offense going, Michael Santini, Olivier Archambeault, Bryce Milson and Emil Sylvergard will be other to support underdog team.
Prediction: At the end, even if Drummondville will give tough time to Quebec, the Remparts will prevail over the Voltigeurs in 6.
Contact the author at: serge.poulin@prohockeynews.com
