The Wildcats road to the President Cup Final went through the eliminations of teams like Cape Breton Screaming Eagles (first round), Rouyn-Noranda Huskies (second round) and the Drummondville Voltigeurs (third round) before facing their best challenge in QMJHL Final.
The Sea Dogs earned the right to be part of the President Cup by eliminating teams like the Prince Edwards Island Rocket (first round, in five games), Gatineau Olympques (second round in four consecutive games), and Victoriaville (third round in six games) facing Moncton in the ultimate series trying to be the team to represent the QMJHL League at the Memorial Cup tournament.
After working at 78.8 percent (ending 9th overall) with a man short during the regular season, the Sea Dogs penalty killing unit work even better with a success rate of 84.1 percent second best in the playoff.
Moncton best players in their eight confrontations against Saint John were defenseman David Savard with 10 points (0g-10a), center Randy Cameron 9points (3g-6a), center Daniel Petersen 8points (5g-3a) and left winger Marek Hrivik 8points (5g-3a).
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Since playoff began the most dangerous players on the Wildcats team are the former Quebec Remparts center Kelsey Tessier with 21 points (15g), Gabriel Bourque another acquisition at the trading deadline from Baie-Comeau followed with 16 points (11g) defenseman Mark Barberio is third with 15 points (5g), Randy Cameron with 14 points (8g) and Nicholas Deschamps another acquisitions from Chicoutimi also with 14 points (5g) complete the first five players Saint John will have to keep an eyes on if they want to have a chance to win this series.
On Sea Dogs side the best offensive players are center Michael Kirkpatrick with 24 points (10g), right winger Nicholas Peterson with 23 (5g), center Mike Hoffman with 19 points (9g), left winger Stanislav Galiev also with 19 points (8g) and young center Jonathan Huberdeau with 17 points (11g).
As you can see the QMJHL President Cup final promise to be very interesting offensively speaking but as you often see the team that are the most success defensively is the one that win most of the times.
When you talk about defense it isn’t just the six or seven defensemen who plays each night, it includes the goaltenders. And in this series fans will have the chance to see two very good ones.
On one side the Wildcats will have Nicholas Riopel. The Philadelphia Flyers fifth round selection 142nd in 2009 began the year in Flyers farm team with the Adirondack Phantoms before the organization sent him back to junior to played 25 games in 2009-10 regular season. In the playoff Riopel played 15 games winning 12 times losing only 3 games with a goal against average of 1:80 and 0.989 save percentage.
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Statistics didn’t reveal everything, but it gave a good idea of what you should expect from goaltenders on each sides. And looking at the numbers and the performances given by each during current series, the QMJHL final will be a long one.
Last but certainly not least a look a both defensive units will conclude the analysis of the up coming QMJHL final.
The Wildcats defensive unit works very well together. Leaded by Mark Barberio with 15 points (5g) the veteran also plays well in his zone when it come times to protect the goaltender and is able to take care of opponent in the crease. Barberio is very well supported by David Savard, Brandon Gormley, Simon Jodoin, Alex Wall and Spencer Metcalfe completing the defensive units for
Offensively leaded by Simon Despres 17 points (2g) the
So trying to make predictions when you have two excellent teams like
Contact the author at: serge.poulin@prohockeynews.com
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