QUEBEC CITY, P.Q. — After sweeping the Val-d’Or Foreurs in four straight games, the Rimouski Oceanic earned the right to face the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada a team that surprised lots of experts who had predicted the team wouldn’t make the playoffs.
Formerly named the Montreal Junior the team that had been transferred to Blainville-Boisbriand surprised everyone after making the playoffs, defeating Gatineau Olympiques in four games. After going through the first round they will face Rimouski with series beginning in Blainville-Boisbriand.
Finding strength and weaknesses on teams that will cross the fire against each other promise to be interesting.
In goal: The battle should be a good one considering the importance of goaltending in playoff. Taking place between the pipes for the first two games in that series will be Jacob Gervais-Chouinard. Showing a goaltending average of 3.58 and a save percentage 0.878 the Sherbrooke Qc. Native allowed only 15 goals in 4 games. Gervais-Chouinard ranked 8th best netminders after the first round.
Out most of the regular season, Etienne Marcoux played very well for the team coach by Jean-Francois Houle (son of former Montreal Canadiens Regean Houle) ending the regular season as the fifth best netminder in the QMJHL sporting a goal-against-averages of 2.71 with a save percentage of 0.912 allowing 105 goals in 43 games played.
After eliminating Gatineau in first round Marcoux is the sixth best goalie with 2.67 goal-against-averages and 0.869 save percentage. Goalies are the last to blame when the puck cross the goal line for a goal, but success in playoff is more than ever a team effort. Every players need to pull in same direction.
Defensively: Rimouski has one of the best offensive defenseman in Jerome Gauthier-Leduc. With 8 points (4g) after first round, Leduc will be heavily count on to make key plays defensively and be at least as good as he was against Val-d’Or in first round. Jean-Philippe Mathieu (0g-4a- 4 pts), Casey Babineau (0g-2a- 2 pts), and Etienne Boutet (0 g-2a- 2 pts) will also have to support Gauthier-Leduc and their goalie defensively for Rimouski to have a chance to continue their run.
On the other side, Alex Micallef (1g-3a- 4 pts), Xavier Ouellet (1g-3a- 4 pts), Olivier Picard (0g-3a-3pts), Vincent Richer (0g-2a- 2 pts), represent the best four defensemen Blainville-Boisbriand has to offer to reply to Rimouski. As you can see Offense from defensive standpoint isn’t the same for the Armada. So Marcoux as goaltender will have to be sharp even more than he was in first round if Joel Bouchard as Armada G.M. wants to see his team going further in series.
Offensively: Blainville-Boisbiand scored only one more goal over first four games compared to Rimouski 24-23. Alexandre Mallet (3g-5a-8pts), Alex Belzile (2g-4a- 6 pts), Scott Oke (3g-2a- 5 pts), Jean-Francois Plante (3g-2a- 5 pts) are the four best offensive forwards for Rimouski. Petr Trainor, Jakub Culek, Peter Straka, Francis Beauvillier will have to bring offensive support to the Oceanic.
For Blainville-Boisbriand Jess Tanguy (5g-8a- 13 pts), Tommy Giroux (4g-5a- 9 pts), Cedric Paquette (3g-6a- 9 pts), Raphael Pouliot (3g-5a- 8 pts), Christopher Clapperton (3g-3a- 6 pts) and Marc-Olivier Roy (3g-3a- 6 pts) are the best offensive forwards for the Armada.
Prediction: After a hard fought battle, Blainville-Boisbriand will come out on top in 6 games.
Contact the author at: serge.poulin@prohockeynews.com
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