QUEBEC CITY, P.Q. — To earn the right to play in the quarter-final, the Lewiston MAINEiacs had to go through the Moncton Wildcats in five games in QMJHL first round. Their upcoming opponent, the Montreal Junior, had to face the Halifax Mooseheads eliminating them in four games.
Ending as the second best team behind the Saint John Sea Dogs in the overall standing, the Montreal Junior will have to be disciplined if they want to continue their run in the playoffs. Not averse to using intimidating tactics, the Lewiston MAINEiacs ended the regular season as the most penalized team in the league.
The Montreal Junior head coach Pascal Vincent, is well aware of that, and said to a Montreal newspaper reporter before the series, “If they decide to use intimidation tactics after the whistle, we won’t play that kind of game.”
It almost cost them a game in the previous series. Leading 4-1, after forty minutes in first game, Montreal took bad penalties in the last ten minutes of the third period, giving Halifax the chance to come back. Fortunately for coach Vincent, his team had been able to win that game 5-3. So even if most experts will consider Montreal as the favorites, to win that series, Montreal wouldn’t want to run the risk of being undisciplined.
“We learned our lesson,” said Montreal Captain Nicolas Chouinard to a daily newspaper, being well aware, Lewiston earned an average of 17.7 minutes in penalty by game. “The game is played between the whistle. If they want to try to intimidate us after the whistle, we will have to get out of it and leave it there.”
Montreal and Lewiston faced each other four times during the regular season, all won by the Junior. During those games, Lewiston gave up 20 power play opportunities to Montreal. If Lewiston continues to visit the penalty box as often as they did during the previous series, it could become an advantage for Montreal, and the series could end sooner rather than later for the MAINEiacs,
Let’s have a look which team might have the edge at different positions.
Goaltenders: Lewiston will need better contributions from their netminder. Nicolas Champion played 44 games during the regular season ending with a goaltending average of 2.83 and .893 save percentage. In the first round of playoff against Moncton, Champion gave up 10 goals in 144.5 minutes of play for a 4.16 G.A.G. and .853 save percentage. Andrey Makarov for his part, ended the regular season with an average of 3.37 in 27 games, he ended with .890 save percentage. In the 2010-11 playoffs, he came in relief of Champion on three occasions ending with 5.93 G.A.G. and .855 save percentage.
In Montreal: Jean-Francois Berube is the main man between the pipes. Berube saw lots of action in the regular season defending the Junior net 50 times with a goaltending average of 2.60 and .902 save percentage. In first round against Halifax, the Repentigny native played all four games with a 1.25 G.A.G. and .955 save percentage. Berube’s back-up, Etienne Marcoux, was sent between the pipes 21 times during the regular season allowing 47 goals in 1100 minutes of play for a goaltending average of 2.56 and .896 save percentage. He didn’t saw action in first round.
Advantage Montreal
On defense: Olivier Dame-Malka (55 points in 64 games) and Samuel Carrier (50 points in 61 games) aren’t the best offensive defensemen in the regular season, but will be heavily count on to continue to produce in the playoff. In first round against Moncton, Carrier with (4 points all assists in 4 games), Malka (2 points in 3 games) and Shannon (2 points in 3 games) were the best offensive defensemen.
Acquired by Lewiston at the trading deadline Jonathan Parisien ( 9 points in 27 games), Dillon Fournier ( 14 points in 60 games), Zachary Shannon ( 13 points in 57 games) and Samuel Finn ( 13 points in 59 games) are the others defensemen who will have to play up to the task defensively and give good protection to their goaltender if the team want to get good chances to win.
In Montreal: Francis Meilleur (53 points in 67 games), Xavier Ouellet (43 points in 67 games), Charles Landry (40 points in 57 games) and Charles-Olivier Roussel (30 points in 59 games) represent the best offensive quartets for Montreal head coach Vincent. In first round against Halifax, Landry (3 points in 4 games), Ouellet (3 points in 4 games), Meilleur (2 points in 4 games) and Roussel also with (2 points in 4 games) were Montreal’s best offensive defensemen.
Jonathan Narbonne, Matt Provost, Jean Laurence Beauchemin, Alex Micalef and Guillaume Belanger complete the defensive corps for Montreal team.
Advantage Montreal
On offense: Etienne Brodeur (83 points in 68 games), Michael Chaput (59 points in 62 games), Stephen Fournier (47 points in 67 games) and Pierre-Olivier Morin (45 points in 59 games) ended the regular season as the four best point producers for the MAINEiacs.
Antoine Houde-Caron (41 points in 64 games), Jess Tanguy (40 points in 58 games), Cameron Critchlow (34 points in 65 games), Matthew Bissonnette (33 points in 43 games), Samuel Henley (31 points in 64 games) and Kirill Kabanov (28 points in 37 games) are the main players from whom offensive contributions permitted Lewiston to be part of 2010-11 QMJHL playoff.
In Montreal: Bad news awaited the Montreal team before the series when the team confirmed the absence of Victor Hertzberg for the duration of the series. Hertzberg, who ended regular season as fourth best point scorer, with (56 points in 48 games) will be forced to watch his teammates from the sideline due to a concussion.
Trevor Parkes (62 points in 60 games), David Rose (60 points in 62 games), Louis Leblanc (58 points in 51 games), and Jeremy Gouchie (55 points in 66 games) represent the offensive force head coach Vincent will count on to produce points for the series.
In the first round, Parkes (7 points in 4 games), Rose (6 points in 4 games), Gouchie (6 points in 4 games) and Nicolas Chouinard (5 points in 3 games) provided the offense from the forward lines during the first round.
While Montreal won’t be able to count on Hertzberg, the Junior still have the advantage over the MAINEiacs offensively.
Looking at other numbers: Lewiston has a slight advantage in goals-for (265-263) but defensively, Montreal allowed 38 fewer goals than Lewiston (185-223). Montreal power play runs at an efficiency of 23.0 percent (64/278), Lewiston power play runs at 17.4 (50/287). In the penalty kill department, Lewiston P.K. runs at 80.4 percent allowing (69/352), Montreal P.K. runs at 80.1 (55/277).
After scrutinizing all numbers, Montreal should prevail in six.
Contact the author at: serge.poulin@prohockeynews.com
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