Before the puck dropped to start the President Cup final, both the Rimouski Océanic and Québec Remparts knew they would meet again at the end of the month at the MasterCard Memorial Cup. If there was a notion the series would be boring or pointless, it was quickly dispelled.
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The division rivals took the series to seven games with Rimouski coming out on top after Michael Joly scored a power-play goal in double overtime of Game 7—the third consecutive game that went to extra time. It’s the Océanic’s third QMJHL championship, the last coming in 2005.
Here’s what we learned from the QMJHL final:
Québec’s top line is scary good
The Remparts No. 1 of Anthony Duclair, Adam Erne and Kurt Etchegary didn’t exist until late in the four-game, semifinal sweep of Moncton when Vladimir Tkachev and Jérome Verrier missed a game each. Lline juggling led Philippe Boucher to strike gold with the team’s two most dangerous scorers, Duclair and Erne, on a line with Etchegary. In the final against Rimouski, Duclair finished with three goals and 10 points. Etchegary had three goals and eight points.
Erne, scored six times and added four helpers in the series. The Tampa Bay Lightning prospect finished the playoffs with 21 goals, the same amount he had in 48 games last season. In the playoffs, the Remparts were 10-4 when he scored, with three of those losses coming in the first round against Cape Breton. On the flip side, Rimouski held Erne off the scoresheet in Games 3, 4 and 7—all Océanic wins. The Oshawa Generals and Kelowna Rockets will need to bottle up Erne to succeed against a lethal Remparts offence.
Two good goalies are better than one
Ideally a team enters the playoffs with a clear-cut starter between the pipes and rides him all the way to the Cup. This didn’t exactly happen with Rimouski in the final. Louis-Philip Guindon started the playoffs as a backup but was the team’s No. 1 entering the final. He was yanked in Game 1 after allowing four goals on 19 shots. Philippe Desrosiers started Game 2, but was pulled after letting in three goals early in the first period.
Guindon started the next three games but was again pulled in Game 6. Desrosiers came in and held on for an overtime win, then started Game 7. He had 47 saves, a career best, allowing just one goal in a 2-1 double overtime win. By the time the Memorial Cup starts, teams usually have stability between the pipes, but Serge Beausoleil has shown he’s willing to change things up in big games.
Frédérik Gauthier key for Rimouski
The Toronto Maple Leafs 2013 first-round pick started the series off on the wrong foot. Gauthier was pointless through the first three games, minus-4 and was unusually bad in the faceoff circle. All was forgotten in Game 4 when he scored the eventual winning goal. He finished the series with a goal and two assists all while improving on draws.
Over the course of the playoffs, he took 630 faceoffs and won 54.3 percent, 125 more than Québec’s Etchegary who had the second most. Gauthier will look to carry that momentum into the the Memorial Cup as he faces off against the top players from the opposition.
Remparts need to tighten up defensively
The Remparts will have the most experienced goalie in the Memorial Cup final in Zach Fucale. He could steal the tournament for the Remparts, but he needs some help. The Remparts gave up 234 shots in the series, with 89 (38 percent) considered dangerous. Fucale gave the Remparts a chance to win every game except the fourth when he was pulled, but they gave up too many chances nightly.
Both teams hoping for history to repeat itself
Nine seasons ago, the Remparts squared off against the Memorial Cup host Moncton Wildcats in the President Cup final, a series Moncton won 4-2. With an automatic berth into the tournament, the Remparts won the Memorial Cup that year with a team featuring Alexander Radulov, Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Angelo Esposito. Rimouski hopes to avoid the fate of 2005 when the Sidney Crosby-led QMJHL champs finished as a runner-up to the London Knights at the Memorial Cup. The Océanic would prefer a repeat of 2000, when they won both the President Cup and the Memorial Cup with a team led by Brad Richards.
No Dunn, no problem
Vincent Dunn was released by the Océanic at the conclusion of the regular season. He didn’t play the final games of the season, serving a two game suspension, his fifth of the campaign. The Ottawa Senators prospect finished the season with 19 goals, a big drop off from the 31 he scored with Gatineau last season, and had a team-high 153 PIM.
After the suspension at season’s end, Dunn was sick and struggling. Serge Beausoleil told French media was vague about releasing Dunn, stating that he was struggling to return to the standard he needed to and that his passion was gone. The Océanic were able to win without the gritty forward with scoring pop, the type of player who usually is invaluable in the playoffs. As shown with the willingness to change up goalies, Rimouski makes bold decisions to improve the squad.
Can either team win the Memorial Cup?
Entering the Q final, both Québec and Rimouski were evenly matched and it looked like it would be a high-scoring and close affair. There were plenty of goals—45 were scored—and the series was tight. Both teams will hope to carry that high-energy momentum into the tournament against two rested teams. The Kelowna Rockets wrapped up a four-game sweep of the Brandon Wheat Kings on May 13. The Oshawa Generals closed out their series against the Erie Otters in five games on May 15.
The Océanic can’t afford to flip-flop between Philippe Desrosiers and Louis-Philip Guindon in such a short tournament with no margin for error. If their best players—NHL prospects Sam Morin, Jan Kostalek and Gauthier—contain the opposition defensively and use their punishing size and offensive flare then Rimouski can win the tournament.
On the Québec side, Erne needs to do what he’s done all playoffs, find the back of the net. Outside of the top line, the Remparts need to get more secondary scoring. Vladimir Tkachev failed to score all series. The offensively gifted Russian signed with Edmonton in the off-season but had the contract voided because he played a couple games in the KHL that year.
He’s draft eligible this year, but will need to play better to keep the NHL dream alive. Dmytro Timashov led all rookies in points in the regular season but only had three assists all series and went pointless in the last four games of the final. If Québec can get balanced scoring and tighten up defensively, they could win the Memorial Cup on home ice. Oh, and they’ll need to actually win games on home ice after losing all three home games in the President Cup final.