QMJHL Final: Cataractes clinging to playoff lives

On Sunday, the CHL  returns to the host site of the 2012 Mastercard Memorial Cup as the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies battle the Shawinigan Cataractes in Game 3 of the President Cup final. Never has a series played out the way this one will.

Through 20 minutes of Game 2 in Rouyn-Noranda Friday, the Huskies led 2-1. An ice issue during the flood forced the suspended the contest. It resumed Saturday, and the Huskies won 4-1 to put them up 2-0 in the series.

Rouyn-Noranda finished the regular season on a 14-game win streak to secure top spot not only in the QMJHL, but the CHL’s top ten. By virtue of capturing the East Division, Shawinigan finished second in the league, playing the final 13 games of the season under new head coach Claude Bouchard.

Shawinigan Cataractes

After two straight losses, the Cats had a 35-16-4-0 record and were in first place in the East Division on February 17 when GM Martin Mondou made the coaching change. Martin Bernard was replaced by Bouchard, who lead the team to a 9-3-0-1 finish. That momentum carried into the playoffs, where the Cats have eliminated Sherbrooke, Charlottetown and Saint John.

Aside from coaching change, Mondou made deals that affected every position on his team. While it took some time to rekindle team chemistry, each of the acquisitions has worked out in his favour.

Starting in goal, the Cataractes acquired Philippe Cadorette not long after he returned from the ECHL. Cadorette is one of the most experienced playoff goaltenders in QMJHL history, having made two deep runs with the Drakkar. Although he is a smaller goaltender, Cadorette is extremely athletic with a high compete level. He was an essential addition based on the style of game Shawinigan plays.

Defensively, Mondou was looking to take some of the heat of draft-eligible Samuel Girard and did so by acquiring San Jose free agent signee Cavan Fitzgerald from the Halifax Mooseheads. Fitzgerald’s rise to prominence last year went largely unnoticed on a decent Halifax team. This acquisition may be the most underrated of all the moves Mondou made. Fitzgerald is a power play quarterback who shoots the puck extremely hard for his size. He is like Girard in that both play with a calmness to their game.

Elsewhere on defence, draft-eligible Gabriel Sylvester is expected to go in the top four rounds of the NHL draft in June. Matthew Klebanskyj started his career as a Cat before spending two-and-a-half years in Moncton. He was brought back in a deadline deal by Mondou. Jonathan Deschamps is another solid defender who Mondou brought in from Cape Breton. Nicholas Welsh brings experience to the group, while two rookies, Louis-Philip Fortin and Simon Benoit have seen limited action.

Shawingan plays an entertaining brand of hockey based mostly on a run-and-gun style. There’s no shortage of top-end scoring threats, beginning with New York Islanders first rounder Anthony Beauvillier. A consummate leader on and off the ice, Beauvillier is proving that size doesn’t matter and the Islanders were just in trading up for him in last year’s draft. To compliment Beauvillier, Mondou added Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Dmytro Timashov, who’s playmaking abilities have to be respected. Another add for size and faceoff prowess, was Danny Moynihan from Halifax.

Of the mainstays in Shawingan’s forward group, draft-eligible Brandon Gignac has speed to burn and was efficient in that 7 of his 24 regular season markers were game-winners. Tampa prospect Dennis Yan quietly goes about his business. He is all-world talent, plays with some edge and when he wants to, can control a game. Alex Pawelczyk and Mathieu Olivier benefit from the attention the others draw. Both are more than capable of producing.

Shawinigan Cataractes 44-19-4-1 (22-11-0-1 Home) 1st East Division, 2nd QMJHL, 12-6
Trail series 0-2, def. SHE 4-1 in Round 1, def CHA 4-2 in Round 2, def STJ 4-1 in Round 3

Individual Stats

In Goal

Philippe Cadorette (12-5-1, 2.75, .910%)

Team Stats

NHL Drafted/Signed Players

Anthony Beauvillier NYI 28th 2015
Gabriel Gagne OTT 36th 2015
Dennis Yan TB 64th 2015
Dmytro Timashov TOR 125th 2015
Cavan Fitzgerald signed SJ FA

NHL Central Scouting Mid-Term Rankings

Samuel Girard #38
Gabriel Sylvestre #76
Brandon Gignac #98

Under The Radar- Brandon Gignac has speed to burn. Of all the players listed by the NHL Central Scouting list he made the biggest jump going from 138 to 92.His hands are catching up to his feet and when they do, he’ll have Anthony Richard potential.

ROUYN-NORANDA HUSKIES

Rouyn-Noranda has size and puck-moving ability on the back end and scoring depth up front, not to mention, a free agent signee in goal who has already established a number of playoff records. The Huskies are also a team that plays a patient style with great confidence in their ability to overcome whatever is thrown at them. A couple of late-game comebacks, mixed in with a few blowouts early in the playoffs have kept the Huskies top of mind when it comes to President Cup favourites.

Goaltender Chase Marchand is an amazing story in that he’s on his third QMJHL team after having been waived out of both the QMJHL and the OHL. The sudden departure of Jeremy Belisle forced the hand of head coach and GM Gilles Bouchard to sign Marchand who he had watched play well for Victoriaville in last season’s playoffs. While the overmatched Tigres lost the series, Marchand’s play didn’t go unnoticed despite 0-4, 4.74, .882% numbers. Marchand has six shutouts heading into Game 3 and a QMJHL record with a shutout streak of 2:23:23

Marchand is helped defensively by a team that has above average puck possession metrics as well as a group of defencemen that defend well with size and move the puck efficiently out of the zone. Nikolas Brouillard the other big acquisition made by Bouchard. Brouillard brings Mastercard Memorial Cup experience from the 2015 Quebec Remparts. He is an underrated defender, but make no mistake, offence is his number one asset. Philadelphia free agent signee Philippe Myers continues to log big minutes without a drop off in production. Without the presence of Jeremy Lauzon, more responsibility has fallen on the shoulders of his younger brother Zachary as well as Jacob Neveu, Allan Caron and Bruno-Carl Denis.

Ottawa Senators pick Francis Perron is undoubtedly the go-to guy on offence. He finished the regular season with 108 points as just one of two QMJHL players to surpass the century mark. He continues to lead the Huskies in the playoffs with 26 points in 15 games. While the Huskies didn’t make the same number of moves as Shawinigan, there were two significant additions to help boost an already potent offence. One of them was San Jose first rounder Timo Meier who was brought in from Halifax. He has matched expectations, as a rugged forward with a pro-calibre shot. He’s also served two post-season suspensions.

Colorado Avalanche prospect Jean-Christophe Beaudin has performed well and can’t be overlooked. Another Colorado prospect is Anthony-John Greer who left Boston University to speed up his development. Greer is a good skater who uses his size well in front of the net. He has the skill to compliment the size making him a legit scoring threat. Mathieu Boucher had five points in a 5-4 win over Moncton in the series clinching game six win. Antoine Waked is a speed burner who is effective on the PK as is Colorado prospect Julien Nantel. The Maple Leafs have laid claim to Latvian Martins Dzierkals who plays with great passion and energy. Gabriel Fontaine is good in the facoff circle while Peter Abbandonato has maintained his pace of production from the regular season.

The Huskies have enjoyed great special teams success, are second best allowing just 26 shots per game against and are deadly when getting a lead, having not lost a game when leading after the first or second periods.

Rouyn-Noranda Huskies 54-9-3-2 (30-2-2-0 Home) 1st West Division, 1st QMJHL, 1st BMO Top 10, 14-3 Playoffs

Lead series 2-0, def. DRU 4-0 in Round 1, def. BLB 4-1 in Round 2, def. MON 4-2 in Round 3

Individual Stats

In Goal

Chase Marchand (13-3-0, 1.17 .954%)

Team Stats

NHL Drafted/Signed Players
Timo Meier SJ 9th 2015
Anthony-John Greer COL 39th 2015
Jeremy Lauzon BOS 52nd 2015
Martins Dzierkals TOR 68th 2015
Jean-Christophe Beaudin COL 71st 2015
Francis Perron OTT 190th 2014
Julien Nantel COL 204th 2014
Philippe Myers signed PHI FA

NHL Central Scouting Mid-Term Rankings
Jacob Neveu #107

Under The Radar- As a Colorado pick, AJ Greer made the decision to leave the NCAA for the opportunity to play more
games and quicken his development. He has size, skates well and is always involved in front of the net.