The President Cup final between division rivals Rimouski Océanic and Québec Remparts has featured lots of goal scoring, as expected, with a combined 21 goals through the first three games. There’s been some instability in the Océanic net, but at this point, it’s anybody’s series.
Since the Remparts are MasterCard Memorial Cup hosts and already have a guaranteed spot, both teams will play for the CHL championship regardless of the outcome of the series. As shown so far, nobody is taking it easy in this series.
Here’s what’s happened in the Q final so far:
Game 1
The Rimouski Océanic was the first team on the board when Michael Joly opened the scoring a minute into the game. Joly celebrated his 20th birthday in style, scoring a hat trick. It wasn’t enough as the Remparts scored twice in the second period and never looked back en route to a 7-4 win.
The top line of Anthony Duclair, Kurt Etchegary and Adam Erne was once again unstoppable, with each member scoring five-on-five and Duclair popping in an empty netter for insurance.
Arizona Coyotes prospect Duclair made Philadelphia Flyers first-rounder Samuel Morin look silly, stripping the puck from the behemoth of a defender then firing a saucer pass over a sprawling defender’s stick to a wide open Etchegary.
Duclair was traded from the New York Rangers to the Coyotes for defender Keith Yandle at the NHL trade deadline. It’s a trade that Rangers fans, at least temporarily, aren’t happy with given Yandle’s performance thus far in the NHL playoffs.
The Coyotes, meanwhile, seem quite content with their trade deadline acquisition.
Louis-Philip Guindon was yanked in the second period after allowing four goals on 19 shots. He began the playoffs in a backup role but grabbed the starting job halfway through Round 2 against Gatineau. In the semifinal against Val-d’Or, Guindon started all four games and picked up two shutouts.
Game 2
Guindon once again got a shot to play in this series, but No. 1-turned-backup Philippe Desrosiers was between the pipes to start Game 2. Three first-period goals, including a shorty from Etchegary, resulted in an early finish for Desrosiers. In just over half a period, he let in three goals on seven shots.
Meanwhile at the opposite end of the ice, Zach Fucale finished the night with 40 saves. A cliché such as “Fucale stood on his head” could apply, but he was literally making saves while backwards in his net. It’s worth a watching once or twice. The ear-to-ear grin on Fucale’s face as he looks up at teammate Erne after making the saves shows that he’s having fun as he goes after another Memorial Cup.
Benching Fucale in favour of Callum Booth to start Round 1 against Cape Breton raised a few eyebrows, but the move has paid off. Fucale has posted solid numbers since re-gaining the No. 1 job—the trade with the Halifax Mooseheads has worked.
The other key part of the Fucale trade was defenceman Matt Murphy. Known more for his reliability defensively than for putting the puck in the net, the blue-liner has five goals in the playoffs.
Each member of the Duclair-Etchegary-Erne line scored for the second consecutive game. The line also contributed four of the team’s nine hits in the game, led by Erne with three.
Game 3
After a solid effort in relief in Game 2, Guindon once again started the game for Rimouski. The Remparts opened the scoring with a goal from Guillaume Gauthier, facing a Rimouski team that drafted him third overall in 2011. Rimouski answered with three straight goals, taking a stranglehold on the game.
After a hat trick in Game 1, Joly got back on the score sheet with a goal that eventually turned out to be the game winner. Rookie Samuel Laberge scored twice, his first QMJHL playoff goals, and was named the first star of the game.
The Remparts’ top line had seven goals in the first two games but went pointless in Game 3. Erne, the playoffs’ top goal-scorer with 17, dropped the gloves with Charles-David Beaudoin with 0:17 left in the second period. The power forward fought three times during the regular season.
Going forward
The Remparts have struggled on the power play this series, going 1-for-14 (7.13 percent) while the Océanic are 2-for-12 (16.67 percent).
As shown in Game 3, holding Duclair-Etchegary-Erne off the scoreboard is the best way to beat the Remparts. Vladimir Tkachev, a small, shifty and dangerous scorer, has yet to score this series after potting three goals in the sweep over Moncton.
Rimouski centre Frédérik Gauthier is known as a shut-down, two-way forward, but the Toronto Maple Leafs first-rounder has yet to put up a point in this series and is minus-4. His face-off percentage of 36.4 in Game 1 was his worst performance of the post-season.