QUEBEC CITY P.Q. — Hockey fans watching the action in the QMJHL Atlantic division were enthusiastic when they went to see their teams in action since the opening night. Every team has to play their best hockey every night to make sure they remain in the race.
The Prince Edwards Island Rocket (8-4-0-2) is in first place followed by the Moncton Wildcats (8-4-0-1) and the Saint John Sea Dogs (8-4-1-0) after 13 games. The Cape Breton Screaming Eagles with 14 points in 12 games played is in fourth, the Acadie Bathurst Titans (5-5-2-1) with 13 points and the Halifax Mosseheads closed the Atlantic division standing with 3 points (1-11-0-1).
If you except Halifax with only three points all the other teams are involved in an exciting race that forces all teams to perform each time they play.
Let’s have a deeper look at each team and their performance on the ice.
Prince Edward Island Rocket : Ranked first in the Atlantic division and fifth overall, the Rocket played better hockey lately after Serge Savard Jr. hired Eric Lavigne on October 7 replacing Guy Chouinard. The decision to fire Chouinard hasn’t been taken because the team played bad hockey it had to be taken because Mr. Savard the GM, didn’t like the direction the team seemed to take. The team played for one game over .500 but didn’t play the way the GM expected.
Since then, new coach Lavigne changed things, the team played much better hockey and the club’s record is there to prove it (8-4-0-2). Jordan Escott (7g-9a) for 16 points, Benjamin Casavant (5g-6a) 11 points, and Chris Doyle (6g-4a) 10 points are the offensive leaders. Jean-Philippe Mathieu (1-8) and rookie Adam Polasek (1G-8A) with 9 points respectively are the two best offensive defensemen.
Six rookies have been successful in their attempt to earn the right to begin their season with the Rocket. Beside defenseman Polasek, defensemen Matthew Hobbs (0g-4a), Lauri Tokoi (0g-2a) and Jimmy Oligny (0g-0a) are the other defensemen who made the team. Forwards Josh Currie (RW 1g-1a), Jeremi Janneteau (C 1g-0a), Cody Linteau (LW 1g-0a) AND Philipe Corbo (LW 0g-0a) completed the rookies crop playing for PEI.
With 8 points rookie defenseman Polasek ranked as the eight best rookies in the QMJHL.
PEI goaltenders Evan Mosher (3w-2L) and Marco Cousineau (4w-4L) ranked third and eight best netminders respectively with 1.94 gaa and 0.950 save percentage and 2.51 gaa and 923 save percentage. It will be interesting to follow Rocket performance under new coach Lavigne and see if the team will be able to continue their great performance all year. One thing is for sure, up until now changing the coach certainly revived the team and they played solid hockey, in another tough division where teams can’t play poor hockey if they want to stick in the race for playoff spot,because even if the season is young, points in October are as important as the one you can get in last miles of regular season.
Moncton Wildcats : When Moncton head coach Danny Flynn looked at his team’s performance since the season began, he must be very happy to see his team in second place. Offensively his team scored 35 goals second behind Saint John with 39.
Answering questions recently about his team’s performance he was the first to put things in perspective. “We doing lots of things well,” said Flynn to Times and Transcript reporter Neil Hodge. “We are running right now with six rookie forwards and we are still managing to be in first place in a real competitive division. “
“We’ve had lots of injuries and we are a very young team upfront right now. We are much younger than a lot of good teams in our division. As great as it is to have talented young players, you win in junior hockey with your older guys. Your older guys are your leaders and your go-to guys,” continued the Wildcats head coach.
That painted an excellent picture of the team’s performance since the season began including Randy Cameron with 14 points (4g-10a) and Scott Brannon with 11 points (7g-4a).
On defense, David Savard picked up 11 points (1g) in 10 games and Brandon Comley with 9 points (3g) in 12 games lead the offense from the blue line. Moncton special teams now rank 7th in the QMJHL with 25 percent.
In goal, Louie Domingue their first round pick 13th overall in 2008 played 6 games (5-3-0-1) with 1.99 GAA and .927 save percentage. Wendell Vye (3-1-0-0) has 2.41 GAA and .919 save percentage.
Saint John Sea Dogs : In Saint John, Anthony Stevens (7g-5a) and Oliver Ouellet (6g-5a) with 12 and 11 points are the offensive leaders for the Sea Dogs. The team performed up to head coach Gerard Gallant’s expectation until the game against PEI where the team lost 4- 0 in front of 1,706 fans at the Charlestown Civic Center. The Sea Dogs coach made harsh comments after that game. “It was pretty well an embarrassing performance,” said Saint John coach after that game in the Telegraph Journal. “We tried a little bit harder in the third period but after getting beat in your own building by PEI 6-1 earlier in season (Sept 23) and then getting destroyed again tonight it’s very disappointing.”
“I’m looking for some leadership in that room and I haven’t seen any. Some nights you have some bad game but tonight we don’t have any excuse.” Gallant continued after his team loses for second time again the Rocket this year.
The expectation is very high in Saint John; the head coach can’t accept the kind of performance his team gave that night against PEI. Gallant expects his players to perform up to the maximum of their abilities. Giving less than 100 percent seem unacceptable from coach’s point of view.
“They had Monday off but there was just no focus at all,” said Gallant, continuing to talk about that game. “I take some responsibility for that, too. To come in here and play a stinker game against a division team that beat us earlier in our building, there is no excuse for that.”
Looking at the overall picture after 13 games played, the Sea Dogs played for 0.615 winning percentage and as of this writing are in second place in the division. Talking about expectation from players, the fans in Saint John heard lots of good things about the young Russian Stanislav Galiev. The 2009 number one pick in the CHL draft showed great offensive potential with 9 points in 13 games (3g-6a). The season is young but for a player who came from Russia at 17 years of age and being able to do what he already did, he looks very promising. Some people said that Galiev could become as good as former Quebec Remparts player Alexander Radulov.
The 6’01” 177-pound left winger is already being watch by NHL scout and it will be interesting to see how good he could become. Saint John fans for sure are happy to see the young Russian wearing their uniform.
Beside Galiev, three other players got 9 points, two of them are defensemen, Nathan Beaulieu (3g-6a), left winger Michael Kirkpatrick (1-8) and defenseman Kevin Gagne complete the foursome at 9 points (1g-8a).
Including Galiev nine rookies earned the right to wear Sea Dogs uniform this year. Tomas Jurco (RW), Jonathan Huberdeau (center), Zack Phillips (center), Gabriel Bourret (D), Pierre Durepos (D), Tyrone Sock (D), Aidrian Kelly (LW) and Scot Oke (LW) represent the Saint John rookies crop that will push to get some ice time and perform up to what head coach Gallant expect of them.
Marc Antoine Gelinas and Karel St.Laurent are the two goaltenders who will try to prevent the puck from crossing the red line this year for the Sea Dogs.
Cape Breton Screaming Eagles : Ranked fourth in the Atlantic division with 14 points (6-4-1-1) Cape Breton was only three points behind Moncton and Saint John with one game in hand. The Screaming Eagles began an Eastern road trip on a positive note with a victory over the Montreal Junior 6-2 on October 14. The team will continue is trip facing Shawinigan on Friday October 16, in Quebec on 17th to end it facing Chicoutimi on Sunday afternoon.
Luke Adam (4g-11a) 15 points, Nick MacNeil (8g-4a) 12 points and Stephen Horyl (7g-2a) 9 points leads Cape Breton offense. Adams the 6’01” 210 pound left winger was acquired last summer from Montreal Junior. Originally a first round selection of the St. John’s Devils in 2006 Adam plays key role for the Screaming Eagles leading in points (15) and assists with (11). He was a 2008 second round selection 44th overall.
Michael Ward (0g-8a) and Francis Meilleur (0g-8a) are the two best offensive defensemen with 8 points. Ward is Cape Breton’s leader in penalty minutes with 20.
Victor Hertzberg, Jean-Sebastien Fournier, Brad Cuzner, Cory MacIntosh, Patrick Lapostolle, Justin Chiasson and Felix Bergeron represent the young rookie’s crop pushing to get ice time and prove themselves in the eyes of coaching staff.
Acadie Bathurst Titans : Occupying the fifth slot in the Atlantic division the Titans didn’t seem to play good hockey even if they trailed by only one point under Cape Breton and only four points behind Moncton and Saint John.
The line of Eric Faille Derek Famulare formerly of Chicoutimi Sagueneens and Vincent Couture didn’t answer head coach Ron Choules’ expectation but the Titans coach wants to keep the duo of Faille and Couture together hoping they will find the connection’s they had last year. Last year they had 44 goals compared to four goals each after 13 games played.
Choules tried different players to complete Faille and Couture, Choules sent Jonathan Lessard and Patrick Jones but without having expected success. Author of 25 goals last year Couture was the first to recognize that he didn’t have success this year. Answering question about his performance since the beginning of the year, he said to French newspaper the Acadie Nouvelle, “It wasn’t the kind of season start I would like to have defensively but with my production last year the expectation are high. I tried to do too much right now; I have to keep things simple. I have to play good in our zone, doing some cycling deep in the offensive zone and shoot the puck on net.” The left winger said.
Taylor Lempke (3g-8a) 11 points, Jonathan Lessard (7g-3a) 10 points and Eric Faille (4g-4a) 8 points are the offensive leaders for the Titans.
Bathurst’s next two games are on the road playing Rouyn-Noranda and Gatineau Olympiques.
Halifax Mosseheads : Nothing seems to work for Cam Russell’s team in 2009-10. With a record of 1-11-0-1 the team is not only last in their division but also last in the QMJHL scoring only 36 goals allowing 61 after 13 games. Halifax played Quebec Remparts last October 15, losing 3-2. The team didn’t play too badly considering they are in a rebuilding phase, a mistake here and there killed them and unfortunately they found themselves on losing end.
One problem the team seems to have is they weren’t able to get goals from the second line and third one, what the coach Russell called secondary scoring. The Mosseheads ended the night with two for six on the power play, Quebec was 0-4 with a man advantage in that game. In Russell’s mind his team kept their opponent under 10 good scoring chances and less than 30 shots on net (29).
Tomas Knotek (5g-7a) 12 points, Travis Randell (7g-4a) 11 points and Gerrard Grant (5g-4a) are the Mosseheads scoring leaders. Defensively rookie defenseman Konrad Abeltshauser is the best offensive defenseman with 6 points (2g-4a).
Halifax counted eight rookies in their lineup. Beside Abeltshauser, Carl Gelinas (LW), Alex Lemieux (RW), Brent Andrews (LW), Joel Grondin (G), Steve Gillard (D), Jordan Costello (LW) and Sawyer Hannay (D) completed the Halifax rookie contingent hoping to contribute to better things for Halifax in 2009-10.
Contact the author at: serge.poulin@prohockeynews.com
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