QUEBEC CITY, P.Q. — Now that the QMJHL regular season is behind them, sixteen out of eighteen teams earned the right to participate in the grueling battle to win the President Cup. Let’s get ready for what all the fans enjoy the most playoff time. Let’s have a quick look of the upcoming series and try to guess which teams can have the best chances to come out and earn the right to represent the QMJHL in the Memorial Cup.
First, teams will face each other in best-of-seven series. The overall standing will be using to determine which teams will face each others. 1-16, 2-15, 3-14, 4-13, 5-12, 6-11, 7-10, 8-9.
So, as QMJHL regular season champion the Saint John Sea Dogs will face the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles, the Montreal Junior will face the Halifax Mosseheads, the Quebec Remparts will face Val-d’Or Foreurs, Drummondville Voltigeurs will face Chicoutimi Sagueneens, the Gatineau Olympiques will face Rimouski Oceanics, Acadie-Bathurst facing
Victoriaville Tigres, Shawinigan Cataractes facing Prince Edward Island Rocket and last but not least the Lewiston MAIMEiacs will face the Moncton Wildcats.
The QMJHL playoff series will begin today with only one game the series opposing the Halifax Mosseheads and the Montreal Juniors. All other series will take off on Friday March 25.
The Halifax Mosseheads vs. the Montreal Juniors.
Earning the 15th place in the overall standing, the Halifax Mooseheads players, are well aware of the enormous task ahead of them, if they want to continue their road to the President Cup. But don’t count of Mosseheads players to come in that series with their heads down, instead, they will be ready for the challenge that begins this Thursday.
“Those guys are going for the Memorial Cup so we know we are underdogs,” said Halifax forward Gabriel Desjardin to Willy Pavlov of the Chronicle Herald. “But we are going to be ready, really ready.
“Montreal has some veteran that will be in their third or fourth playoff. But we’re going to make sure all the rookies are ready. We know it’s going to be different but we’ve all been waiting for this so hopefully it goes well.”
Being considered the underdog entering that series will certainly take away some pressure to perform but it won’t prevent players to give all they have in hope of causing a surprise in the QMJHL first round series.
Carl Gelinas (54 points, 26 goals), Martin Frk (50 points, 22 goals), Darcy Ashley (39 points 19 goals) will be heavily count on to produce if want to have slightly chance in that series.
Ashley for one think the pressure to perform being on the Montreal team could be in their advantage.
“I think they’ve got the pressure on them so hopefully we can use that to our advantage,” said the forward to the Chronicle Herald. “If we can shut down their top guys maybe make them panic a bit, that’s when we can pounce.”
In goal, rookie Anthony Terenzio will have the task of facing Montreal offensive and try to do what most people think will be impossible giving a chance to Halifax earning the chance to continue the run for the President Cup.
Winner of the Telus West division with 102 points after 68 games, the Montreal Juniors is one of teams being consider by experts to have chance to be one of the two teams for the chance to win the President Cup and eventually being the QMJHL representative at the Memorial Cup tournament. But before going to far, the first to bring back to reality will be Pascal Vincent.
Used to deal with injuries in 2010-11 campaign more than last 12 years behind QMJHL bench the Montreal head coach got bad news again before their first round series against Halifax. Montreal will have to deal with the absence of their fourth best scorer (24g-32a-56pts) right winger Viktor Hertzberg.
Victim of what appear to be a concussion Hertzberg will have to be force to look first round from the sideline. During a game against Victoriaville a simple shoulder to shoulder check seem to cause the damage and force the team to begin the first round without one of their best player.
As an experienced coach Vincent doesn’t seem to be affected by that.
“The Montreal Canadiens lost defenseman Andrei Markov last year in the playoff and ride a good run in the NHL playoff. Why we can’t do the same,” asked the head coach in an article in le Journal de Montreal.
Montreal was able to end in third place in the overall standing, having to deal with important players being out of the lineup, at certain times during the year. The team has had to play games without key players like Louis Leblanc, Philippe Lefebvre and Louis-Marc Aubry.
With the absence of Hertzberg, Vincent is confident in his formation depth to palliate the absence his right winger. The Montreal head coach will ask to David Rose to play on right wing to complete Louis Leblanc and Trevor Parkes.
Key players for Montreal team to keep an eye on during that series are, Trevor Parkes (62 points 33 goals), David Rose (60 points 22 goals), Louis Leblanc (58 points, 26 goaals), and Jeremy Gouchie (55 points 19 goals).
On defense, Montreal head coach Francis Meilleur (53 points 8 goals), Xavier Ouellet (43 points, 8 goals), Charles Landry (40 points, 11 goals) and Charles-Olivier Roussel (30 points, 5 goals).
In goal, with a goaltending average of 2,60 and saving percentage of.902 Jean-Francois Berube will be the mask man between the pipes for Pascal Vincent.
Prediction: Montreal in five.
Contact the author at: serge.poulin@prohockeynews.com
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