March Madness is spilling over into the CHL with Victoriaville, Sudbury providing upsets.
If you haven’t already done so, it’s time to throw away your brackets.
No, not your college hoops bracket – although I’m sure Virginia Commonwealth University already ruined any semblance of that bracket. March Madness spilled over into the Canadian Hockey League, where the bracket-busting madness is already taking shape.
First, it was the No. 11 seed in the Québec Major Junior Hockey League, the Victoriaville Tigres, taking the broom to the No. 6 ranked Acadie-Bathurst Titan on Wednesday. Seventeen points separated the two in the regular season standings, now just the stunning Tigres remain standing.
One upset can ruin a bracket, but two is just that much sweeter.
Like VCU, Victoriaville needed a bracket-busting partner in crime. Just as Butler’s upsets complemented those by VCU, the Sudbury Wolves’ shocking sweep of the Ottawa 67’s added to the madness instilled by the Tigres.
But if Victoriaville’s series win registers as an upset, Sudbury’s sweep of the 67’s qualifies as an all-out shocker. The Ontario Hockey League’s seventh-seeded Wolves finished with 31 fewer points than the now disposed 67’s, the type of David beating Goliath storyline on par with those in college basketball.
"I don’t think anybody ever thought of us even winning (the series), let alone sweeping," Sudbury head coach Trent Cull said late Thursday night.
Victoriaville’s Cinderella story was just as surprising.
"The experts had predictions all over and it was all about Bathurst in five or six (games) and maybe one or two experts had us winning," Victoriaville general manager Jerome Mésonéro said. "We believed we had a chance to win the series, but the fact that we did it in four straight games – even we’re a little surprised."
So how did these two underdogs shock the junior hockey world with these epic upsets?
In Victoriaville’s case, it came down to a few factors. The most glaring stat line emerging from the series was that of the two goaltenders. The Titan traded a boatload of draft picks to the Lewiston MAINEiacs in the summer to acquire eventual Canadian world junior goaltender Olivier Roy.
This was supposed to be his time to shine. Instead, Roy’s junior swan song was out of sync, culminating with a 6.88 goals against average and a .739 playoff save percentage in three starts, none of which he finished. The Edmonton Oilers signed Roy the same day he witnessed his team’s season come to an end while watching from the bench.
The Tigres’ rookie starter, Czech import David Honzik, posted a .930 save percentage while chipping in with three assists – including one in the series-clinching goal in Game 4.
"He was the MVP of the series for us," Mésonéro said. "He was phenomenal."
Stunningly, Mésonéro may be the only person in Victoriaville that felt any sympathy for Roy.
"I think Olivier Roy is a good goalie, he just had a bad week in his career," Mésonéro said. "There’s no doubt he’s a good goalie, but too bad for him. He had a bad week at the wrong time. It was good for us and we took advantage."
While the Tigres took advantage of a struggling goalie, the Wolves took advantage of an injury-depleted Ottawa roster.
Since modesty is on the menu, Cull offered up his analysis.
"Ottawa, unfortunately, was really banged up with some injuries and it probably aided in our cause," he said.
Yes, quite unfortunate.
But it wasn’t entirely about Ottawa, Cull says. His young team came together after Christmas following a sluggish start. The youth movement could have been abandoned, but he and general manager Blaine Smith believed in the process.
"We tried to beat everyone at least once (after Christmas)," Cull said. "We talked about that and we said, ‘We may not be the best team, but we’re trying to make sure that everyone knew on any given night we could beat anybody.’"
Four straight times, it turns out.
Fittingly, the two Cinderella teams on two sides of the CHL bracket are likely going up against a No. 1. Both VCU and Butler ousted the top ranked teams en route to the Final Four, while the Sudbury Wolves are assured a date with the OHL’s No. 1, the MasterCard Memorial Cup host Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors.
"It doesn’t get any easier, that’s for darn sure," Cull quipped.
The Tigres, meanwhile, will get the QMJHL’s top-ranked team, the Saint John Sea Dogs, assuming the Rimouski Océanic don’t overcome a 3-1 series deficit to Gatineau.
"The playoffs are short," Mésonéro said. "You never know what can happen."
Bring on the CHL madness.
