QUEBEC CITY P.Q.— With a record of 6-0-0-1 the 2008-09 President Cup champion Drummondville Voltigeurs still is in first place overall in 09-10 season after 7 games. Lots of people think Shawinigan can win the central division but don’t neglect the Voltigeurs they could surprise even if they lose important players.
Victoriaville with eight games played is in second place thanks to a 5-2-0-1. Lewiston and surprisingly Shawinigan ended last in division only with 5 games played.
Drummondville Voltigeurs: The team loses lots of power offensively. With the departure of Yannick Riendeau, David Masse, Mike Hoffman and Samson Method Drummondville loses 184 points. Even if they lose offensively the head coach, Mario Duhamel, will be able to count on several veterans with character.
Marc-Andre Vachon is the one who took the bull by the horn with 11 points (8g-3a) after 7 games played. He was followed by Sean Couturier with seven (4g-6a) and defenseman Marc-Antoine Desnoyers with 8 points (3g-6a).
Antoine Tardif played six games, winning five games and allowing only ten goals, accumulating a 1:70 goals against average and .926 save percentage. Frederic Piche played twice allowing only one goal with a 0.98 GAA and .958 saving percentage.
Victoriaville Tigres: Better things are expected in the 09-10 season for the team coached by Yannick Jean. Ranked second after eight games played, the team lost a hard battle against Drummondville, 4- 3, in a shootout on September 20. Team cannot afford to lose too many intra-divisional games if they want to do better this year because it will certainly be costly.
Lead offensively by Brandon Hynes with seven points in eight games (5g-2a) the team will need consistent efforts from everyone if they want to be successful. Back from the New York Islanders’ training camp Kevin Poulin (2W-0L 1:50 GAA and .943 saving percentage) will be the main guy in goal for head coach Jean. Antonio Mastropietro compiled a record of 3-3 with 2.96 GAA and .902 saving percentage during Poulin’s absence.
Good things are also expected from the offensive duo of Tomas Kubalik and Andrej Nestrasil. On defense, Joel Chouinard (sixth round selection 167 overall in 2008 by the Colorado Avalanche) will be heavily count on to take the lead from the blue line.
Lewiston MAINEiacs: With a 5-2-0 record, Lewiston is in third place in their division. Lead offensively by Billy Lacasse (3g-7a), Alexander Beaton (3g-6a) and Alexis Piette (4g-4a) with ten, nine and eight points respectively, the organization expects the team can’t do worse than last year, finishing 17th just over Val d’Or.
Adrien Lemay and Jordan Kennedy will have the task of stopping the puck for Lewistion. Lewiston made an important trade last summer sending forwards Danick Hudon Paquet, Dominic Savoie, defenseman Patrick Cusack, goaltender Peter Dalmas, and the first Euro pick in 2010, in return Quebec sent defenseman Samuel Carrier and forwards Sebastien Trudeau plus their first round pick in 2009, 9th overall (Jean-Francois Plante), a third round pick, 39th, overall in 2009 (Samuel Henley) and their Euro first pick in 2010.
The organization expects better things in the 09-10 season. Only time will tell how good the regular season will be.
Shawinigan Cataractes: This club was seen by some experts as the potential division winner. But being in last place in their division after five games isn’t the way the team expected to begin the year. The Cataractes lost offensive power with the departure of Cedric Lalonde McNicoll, Nicolas Petersen, Mathew Pistilli, Maxime Macenauer, Simon Lacroix, and Alex Grant but it wasn’t an excuse to head coach Eric Veilleux.
Veilleux expects his troops to work hard every night, giving a chance to win every game. Pierre-Aleandre Vandal, 7 points (6g-1a) in three games, Michael Bournival, with 7 points (2g-5a) in five games, rookie Nicolas Larocque-Marcoux with 5 points (1g-4a) in five games and defenseman Charles-Olivier Roussel with 5 points (0g-5a) are the Cataractes’ offensive leaders.
Allowing 13 goals in five games didn’t represent the way Shawinigan’s head coach envisioned his goaltender Gabriel Girard’s debut. Back-up netminder Francois Lacerte came in relief for Girard in the game in Quebec and earned next game starts giving Girard time to think about his performance. The Cataractes’s second round selection, 21st overall in 2007, must be much better if Shawinigan is to have a chance to win games.
Contact the author at: serge.poulin@prohockeynews.com
You must be logged in to post a comment.