QMJHL Playoff Previews

QUEBEC CITY P.Q.— In the Telus Central Division first series will see the Drummondville Voltigeurs facing the Lewiston MAINEiacs that entered by the back door thanks to the Baie-Comeau Drakkar loss against Quebec Remparts in game 68 of the regular season. In the other series the Shawinigan Cataractes will face the Victoriaville Tigres in one of most interesting series to look for.
 
Lewiston MAINEiacs vs. Drummondville Voltigeurs.
This series look like a miss match at first. With a record of (51-15-0-2) over 68 regular season games for the Voltigeurs compare to (23-42-0-3) after 68 games for the MAINEiacs, the team coach by Mario Duhamel look like too strong for his opponent.
 
Leaded offensively by left winger Pierre-Olivier Morin 65 points in 67 games (20 goals), Michael Chaput 55 points in 68 games (28 goals) and Billy Lacasse 50 points in 61 games (21 goals), these players will be heavily count on by head coach   Jean-Francois Houle if Lewiston want to win some games.
 
On Defence former Quebec Remparts defenseman Samuel Carrier is their best defenseman not just offensively with 42 points in 66 games (10 goals) but he is used by his coach in all situation whether it’s on power play, penalty killing or at even strength. Another good defenseman is Eric Gelinas (drafted by New Jersey Devils in second round 54^th overall). Gelinas ended the regular season with 31 points in 61 games (6 goals). These two defensemen will see lots of ice time and will be heavily count on to protect Adrien Lemay another former Quebec Remparts player traded couple year ago for draft pick.
 
Lewiston faith will be directly relate to the Charlesbourg native between the pipes because without very solid performance no one give too many chances to win more than two games in that series. Lemay ended the 2009-10 regular seasons with a goaltending average of 3.87 with .896 save percentage. He allowed 221 goals against facing 2118 shots over his 3430:01 minutes of play. The other netminder is Tyler Kennedy who played only 12 games with goaltending average of 5.90 and .848 save percentage.
 
The special units are in Drummondville advantage. The Voltigeurs power play works at 22.6 percent compare to 15.0 for the MAINEiacs. Penalty killing also is in favour of Drummondville 80.4 percent compare to 73.1.
 
In Drummondville, the Voltigeurs begins the series as the favourite to easily win that series most experts preview that series in four for the team coach by Mario Durocher.
 
Offensively leaded by Sean Couturier 96 points in 68 games (41 goals), Gabriel Dumond with 93 points in 63 games (51 goals) and Marc-Olivier Vachon with 74 points in 67 games (30 goals) the Voltigeurs will have to keep their concentration and work real hard staying focus to the game and to what each and everyone will be ask to do by the coach if they want to end that series sooner rather than later.
 
On defence the Voltigeurs can count on Marc-Antoine Desnoyers 54 points in 68 games, (18 goals) and Andrew Randazzo with 39 points in 67 games (11 goals) to grudge heavy amongst of ice time. Charles Landry, Olivier Hotte and Ryan McKiernan also play very well completing the works of first two.
 
In goal Jake Allen (formerly a Montreal Junior netminder) came to Drummondville at the trading deadline on last January 7 will be the main guy in net. With a goaltender average of 1.75 and a save percentage of .933 the Voltigeurs hope Allen will be able to perform as good as Marco Cousineau did last year playing major role in QMJHL run to win the President Cup in 2009.
 
Series Prediction: even if I have tremendous respect for the way Adrien Lemay tended goal for Lewiston can’t go against my logic. Drummondville, in five.
 
Shawinigan Cataractes vs. Victoriaville Tigres.
This series is another promising one. Fans in both cities will see an exciting hockey with lots of action. Last year Shawinigan played very strong hockey eliminating Victoriaville so this year the Tigres surely want to take their revenge. To help to realize that, the team made several keys acquisitions at the trading deadline. Players like Joel Champagne, Guillaume Goulet and Samuel Groulx came from other teams and hope will continue to play important role hoping the team will be able to go through the first round.
 
Pierre-Alexandre Vandal with 75 points in 55 games (31 goals), Denis Levesque with 40 points in 63 games (23 goals) and Michael Bournival with 62 points in 58 games (24 goals) are the Cataractes leaders offensively. With a total of 70 points over 68 regular season games Shawinigan ended 25 points behind the Tigres but as you will certainly heard in week to come nothing count right now, it new season everyone begins on same level whether you finish first, second, third, or fourth in division.
 
On defence veteran Charles-Olivier Roussel 51 points in 64 games (15 goals) is the main guy for head coach Eric Veilleux. Gabriel Lemieux and Rookie Michael Claffey will try to do their best to help their team to perform up to the expectation.
 
In the special units department Victoriaville got slide edge over Shawinigan. Tigres power play run at 25.6 percent compare to 22.0 for the Cataractes. In the penalty killing unit Victoriaville got the advantage killing at 85.8 percent, Shawinigan is at 75.9.
 
In goal Shawinigan head coach Eric Veilleux will certainly begins that series sending Marc-Antoine Gelinas to defend Cataractes net. Acquired from Saint John Sea Dogs at the trading deadline, the native of St-Etienne-de-Lauzon played good hockey in Shawinigan, earning the confidence of head coach Veilleux to begin the series against Victoriaville.
 
Ending the regular season with a goaltender average of 2:60 with .915 save percentage Gelinas need to play his best hockey if he wants to give his team a chance to win the series. If anything should happen (read injury) to the one who will be the starting netminder in the series for Shawinigan, Gabriel Girard is Gelinas Backup. Girard ended 2009-10 campaign with a goaltender average of 3,40 and .895 save percentage.   
 
In Victoriaville, head coach Yannick Jean could count on several players to put the puck in the net. Philip-Michael Devos with 93 points in 68 games (35 goals), Joel Champagne a great acquisition coming from PEI and add his offensive contribution with 79 points, ( 36 in Victoriaville in 29 games) in 65 games (38 goal, 20 in the Tigres uniform) and Brandon Haynes with 75 points in 68 games (41 goals) make great offensive contributions leading the team offensively.
 
On defense the team lost an important player who came from Rimouski in a trade last January 7. After being injured (broken jaw) Emannuel Boudreau will be lost for at least next two weeks. Joel Chouinard 68 points in 65 games (23 goals) and Samuel Grouxl will have to uphold their play and play more minutes without making too many mistakes in defensive zone to fill Boudreau’s time on the ice.
 
In goal expect to see Kevin Poulin to play the majority of the time to protect the net for Victoriaville.
 
Offensively Victoriaville got the advantage 296 against 217 for Shawinigan, defensively the Tigres ended the year allowing 191 goals against, Shawinigan ended with 240 goals against.
 
Prediction: Victoriaville will prevail in six over Shawinigan.         
 
 
 
 
Contact the author at: serge.poulin@prohockeynews.com