QUEBEC CITY P.Q. — The Western Division series will see the Val-d’Or Foreurs facing the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies and in the other the Gatineau Olympiques will face the Montreal Junior. Rivalry between Val-d’Or and Rouyn-Noranda is still very alive despite the unbalanced record of 88-52 in Rouyn-Noanda’s favor. The battle is always fierce between the two so fans in both cities shouldn’t expect less.
Most of the numbers games seem to favor Rouyn-Noranda. The Foreurs didn’t win in their last ten games (0-8-2-0) compared to (8-1-0-1) for the Huskies. The statistics of goals for and goals against are still in favor of the team coached by Andre Tourigny, Rouyn-Noranda, 256-205, Val-d’Or 202-296. On the power play, Rouyn-Noranda 22.7 and Val-d’Or 18.1 and in penalty killing again it’s in the Huskies’ favor, Rouyn-Noranda 83.8, Val-d’Or 75.9.
In Val-d’Or, Alexandre Quesnel with 63 points, in 57 games, (38 games with his former team Gatineau Olympiques, 19 with the Foreurs) (27 goals, 17 with Gatineau), Samuel Morneau 62 points in 55 games (30 goals) and Jonathan Hazen with 59 points in 53 games (24 goals) are the offensive leaders, the one on whom, the head coach Marc-Andre Dumont will heavily count on to produce goals for the team to get a chance to win the series.
On defense, the suspension of Mario Scandella will prevent the Foreurs from using their best offensive defensemen. Simon Lacroix with 41 points in 67 games (11 goals) and others will have to compensate doing their best to assure a good transition between the defensemen and forwards for one, trying to accumulate points on the offense to help.
In goal, sent back to the Foreurs organization by the Philadelphia Flyers, Raphaele D’orso will certainly play a key role in net for Dumont’s team. With a goaltending average of 3.86 and .883 save percentage in 38 games it will be interesting to see how he will react during games.
In Rouyn-Noranda, led offensively by Gabriel Levesque, 82 points in 67 games (24 goals), Philippe Cornet with 77 points in 65 games (28 goals), Jeff Desjardins with 58 points in 67 games (25 goals) the Huskies will be fine in first round.
On defense, Jerome Gauthier-Leduc with 46 points in 67 games (20 goals), Nicholas Deslauriers with 45 points in 65 games (9 goals) and Dmitry Kostromitin with 39 points in 58 games (16 goals) the Huskies can count on a trio of defensemen to get the puck out of the zone quickly, making good first passes and can support their teammates offensively when needed.
In goal, acquired at the last trading deadline from Bathurst, goaltender Nicholas Champion will have something to prove in the playoff. Ending with a goaltending average of 2.96 and .907 save percentage, he will have to continue to perform like he did during the regular season, in the so called by the fans and experts the true season, when that count the most.
Series Prediction: Rouyn-Noranda should easily prevail in five.
Gatineau Olympiques vs. Montreal Junior.
This series promise to be interesting because on one side you have a team like Gatineau that have the reputation of working hard to never give anything easy up. Recently hired as new head coach, John Chabot came to replace Jerome Dupont who resigned due to conflict with the orientation of the organization. Under Chabot the team played 0.500 in their last 10 games (5-5-0-0).
Coached by Pascal Vincent the Montreal Junior is another team recognized as giving all they have to win games. Also playing .500 hockey in their last 10 games (4-4-0-2) Montreal will have to respect the game plan up to the finest detail if they want to come out of this series as the winner, because Gatineau will certainly push their opponent to the limit.
Looking at the numbers more closely, in the department of goals for and against, Gatineau ended the regular season allowing two more goals 217 than they scored 215. Montreal ended with same number of goals for and against 215-215. On the power play, Montreal runs at 15.2 percent compare to Gatineau 18.2 slight advantages to the Olympiques. On penalty killing Montreal also has a slight advantage 83.1 versus 82.1 for Gatineau.
Offensively, Tye McGinn with 62 points in 50 games (20 goals), Alex Beaton with 46 points in 65 games 39 with his former team in Lewiston 26 with the Olympiques (16 goals, 10 in Lewiston), and defenseman Hugo Laporte with 40 points in 67 games (9 goals) are the offensive leaders.
Defensively, beside Laporte, rookie Adam Janosik brought good offensive contribution from the blue line with 35 points in 63 games (9 goals). The others veteran Hubert Labrie 20 points in 67 games (4 goals), and Vincent Barnard with 19 points in 67 games (11 goals) also works hard to complete Olympiques defensive units.
In goal, Gatineau head coach Chabot will send Maxime Clermont who ended the regular season with goaltending average of 2.81 and .897 save percentage in 59 games played. Rookie Dereck Tait is Clermont’s backup and shouldn’t see action unless there is an injury to Clermont.
In Montreal, Jeremy Gouchie with 65 points in 67 games (25 goals), Nicholas Chouinard with 59 points in 66 games (29 goals) and rookie Trevor Parkes with 47 points in 66 games (27 goals) are the offensive leaders. Matthew Brenton and Guillaume Asselin 47 and 42 points respectively are other players to keep eyes on when you play the Junior.
Defensively, Hubert Genest with 24 points in 66 games (5 goals) and David Stitch with23 points in 47 games (6 goals) are the two leaders from the blue line.
In goal, Montreal head coach Vincent will put his confidence in Jean-Francois Berube who played 45 games ending with an average of 3.03 with .897 save percentage. Rookie Etienne Marcoux is the backup and played 9 games ending with 3.41 goals against average and .898 save percentage.
Series Prediction Montreal in six over Gatineau.
Contact the author at: serge.poulin@prohockeynews.com
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