QUEBEC CITY, P.Q. — The Semi-Final series between Gatineau and Quebec promises to be interesting for several reasons. This series will confront two teams with two different philosophies. One that promotes an offensive philosophy (Quebec) while not neglecting the defensive aspect of the game. The other (Gatineau) embraces a defensive philosophy but can also score goals with a productive first line.
As hockey fans you often hear the axiom that offensive wins regular season, defense wins playoff championships. This series will be an excellent opportunity to see a confrontation between these two philosophies.
In the preceding series between Drummondville Voltigeurs and Gatineau one of the main questions in the media was which team would have the best offensive line between Ondrej Palat, Sean Couturier and Pier-Antoine Dion from Drummondville or the one with Christian Ouellet, Philip-Michael Devos and Ty McGinn?
The Gatineau line prevailed at the end in the Quarter-Final series.
Now in this semi-final series, Gatineau head coach will have to face the challenge of finding a strategy to stop the best offensive leader since the series began with John Audy-Marchessault, who has 28 points in 11 games (10 goals). Mrchessault usually plays with Joel Champagne as center (13 points in 11 games, 7 goals) and Mirko Hoefflin (12 points in 11 games, 3 goals) as left winger.
Other Quebec forwards Gatineau head coach will have to pay special attention to and talk about with his players are Frederick Roy (19 points in 11 games, 8 goals), Alexandre Grenier (14 points in 10 games, 7 goals), Ryan Bourque (13 points in 11 games, 4 goals), Tomas Filippi (11 points in 11 games, 3 goals).
In the preceding round against the Voltigeurs, Olympiques coach Groulx, gave the task to stop Drummondville most productive offensive duos in regular season of Palat and Couturier (96 points each) to the defensive pairing of Hubert Labrie and Nicolas Deslauriers. And it worked very well since Labrie was on the ice for only two Drummondville goal recording a minus 13, Deslauriers ended with minus 7.
It will be interesting to see which defensive pairing the Olympiques head coach will send on the ice, between Labrie and Deslauriers or if he will ask Mathieu Gagnon and Adam Janosik to shoulder the work. It promises to be interesting matchup.
Being the most offensive team since the playoff began with 62 goals in 11 games, Quebec head coach Patrick Roy takes a particular interest to the defensive aspect of the game. While Roy is happy to see his team able to score goals, he wants to see his team play to be almost perfect defensively.
While Gatineau is recognized for their defensive efficiency in this postseason, allowing only 27 goals against in 11 games, Quebec presents exactly the same statistics on defensive side of the game.
The Olympiques can count on Labrie, Deslauriers, Gagnon and Janosik, Quebec will be able to count on veteran defensemen Alex Wall, Mikael Tam, Vincent Bermard and Martin Lefebvre.
Another good confrontation to preview should be between, first Olympiques offensive line of McGinn (questionable for first game due to injury), Devos and Ouellet and one of the two Quebec defensive pairing. Don’t be surprise, if Remparts head coach ask to his captain Tam and Wall to step on the ice, each times Olympiques most productive line will.
Other Gatineau players on whom Quebec coaching staff will have to tell their players to pay attention to are, Jean-Gabriel Pageau (19 points in 11 playoff games, 8 goals), Philippe Halley (11 points in 11 games, 6 goals), Tommy Tremblay (physical presence, 7 points in 9 games, 2goals), Cody Linteau (5 points in 10 games)
Now that we have had talked about the offensive and defensive aspects of the upcoming series, let’s take a look at on another important position that could play important role in this semi-final series. The goaltenders.
It will be interesting to see how goaltenders will perform during this series. Olympiques’ Groulx began 2011 playoff using both of his netminders, wanting to create a challenge between Francois Lacerte and Maxime Clermont. Groulx seemed to make a choice lately, using Clermont in last eight games.
In Quebec, Roy expects to see veteran Clermont between the pipes, at least to begin the series. In 8 games since the playoff began, the veteran netminder presents a goal against average of 2.27 and .919 save percentage. In five games, Lacerte had a goal against average of 2.13 with .915 save percentage.
If your heart sides with Gatineau in this series, you must count on goaltending to be able to make key saves because rest assure the Quebec offense will take advantage of every opportunity the opposition will offer to put the puck behind the red goal line.
On the other hand, if you tend to root for Quebec to earn the right to play in the President Cup final, you will expect the same from Louis Domingue. The Phoenix Coyotes’ prospect presents a goal against average of 2.36 and .918 save percentage. Jimmy Appleby saw action in only two games showing a goal against average of 7.71 with .500 save percentage.
Prediction: It should be an exciting series considering you will see two different philosophies confronting each other. But at the end, even if you usually see defense winning matches against offensive team in playoff, Quebec should prevail in seven games for once as a team that advocates offensive.
Contact the author at: serge.poulin@prohockeynews.com
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