Finally, we take our first look at the No. 1 team in the CHL.
The Rouyn-Noranda Huskies travel to Blainville-Boisbriand to take on the Armada in Game 3 of their second-round series. Rated as the top seed in the league, Rouyn-Noranda swept through 16th-seeded Drummondville in Round 1, outscoring the Voltigeurs 33-4.
Blainville-Boisbriand pulled the biggest upset in QMJHL history as the 13th seed, upending President Cup contender Val d’Or in six games. The Foreurs finished 40 points ahead of the Armada in the regular season. Game 6 went to triple overtime, before Philippe Sanche scored, ending one of the longest playoff games in Q history.
The series has been interesting to this point, as each team has won a game by way of the shutout. Blainville carried the momentum from its series win over Val d’Or and defeated Rouyn-Noranda 1-0 in Game 1 thanks to a 29-save shutout from Florida prospect Samuel Montembeault. The Huskies earned the home-ice split, winning Game 2 by a 5-0 count, as Chase Marchand made 18 saves to record the shutout.
BLAINVILLE-BOISBRIAND ARMADA
To say the Armada is a team of no-name players wouldn’t be inaccurate. Montembault is the only drafted player on the team and NHL Central Scouting lists only Miguel Picard for the 2016 draft. Statistically, there’s no evidence Blainville belongs on the same sheet as Rouyn-Noranda, but the same could’ve been said in the series against Val d’Or. No doubt, head coach and general manager Joel Bouchard has used these factors as motivating tools, adopting the us-against-the-world mentality.
Aside from being a master motivator, another Bouchard pillar is team discipline. He has preached this premise right from the start and has been known to bench players who stray from his teachings, regardless of status. The Armada was the second-least penalized team in the QMJHL during the regular season, at just over 12 PIM per game. That discipline has carried into the post-season and has served the group well, limiting Val d’or’s dangerous power play in Round 1 and Rouyn-Noranda’s in Game 1. Game 2 of the series saw Blainville take 10 penalties and offer up six Rouyn-Noranda power plays, resulting in a 5-0 loss.
Despite being a third-round pick last June and being named as one of three goaltenders for Canada’s world junior team, Montembeault put up slightly better than average regular-season numbers. Since the start of the playoffs, however, he has elevated his game and was the main reason the Armada was able to pull off the upset over Val d’Or. He posted a 4-2, 2.19, .933 stat line and was named a star in four of the six games, earning first star honours in three of them.
Defensively, veterans T.J. Melancon and Guillaume Beaudoin, both of whom wear letters, anchor the Armada. Melancon is an Ontario castoff who’s made the best of his opportunities in Blainville, while Beaudoin is an Armada through and through having been drafted in 2012. Beaudoin was limited to just 32 games during the regular season. Charlie Roy also adds some experience. Blainville has utilized three rookies in the playoffs, with Daven Castonguay, Antoine Crete-Belzile and Michael Kemp. Rookie Pascal Corbeil put up 31 points and was a key contributor on Blainville’s power play in the regular season, but has played just one post-season game.
Up front, no Armada player came close to averaging a point per game. Import Kristian Pospisil lead the way with 40 points in 52 games played. William Gignac was brought in from Val d’Or and used increased playing time to show off his speed and point-producing abilities.
No player epitomizes Blainville’s team better than Sanche, who missed three months of the season only to return for four of the final five regular-season games to prepare for the playoffs. Sanche has 11 points in eight playoff games to date. He’s undersized, but works extremely hard and is apt at delivering Bouchard’s messages.
The Armada has a group of three key players of the 1998 age group in Miguel Picard, Ty Hylland and Alexander Katerinakis, who all performed admirably during the regular season but weren’t quite ready to take over from the Nikita Jevpalovs-Danick Martel-Daniel Walcott leadership group from a year ago. Yvan Mongo is another hard-working Armada player who leads by example. While they may not all get top-flight minutes, Bouchard has a way of making his players feel important by getting them all into the lineup. Import Jan Dufek has to produce, as does Gignac. Look for rookies Joel Teasdale, Connor Bramwell and Shaun Miller to contribute despite their age.
| Blainville-Boisbriand Armada, 26-32-8-2 (16-15-3-0 Home) 4th West Division, 16th QMJHL | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Series tied 1-1; defeated Val d’Or 4-2 in Round 1 | |||||
| Individual Stats | |||||
| Top Scorers | GP | G | A | PTS | Note |
| Philippe Sanche | 8 | 5 | 6 | 11 | 9th QMJHL Pts |
| Jan Dufek | 7 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 6th QMJHL Rookies |
| William Gignac | 7 | 2 | 3 | 5 | |
| Yvan Mongo | 8 | 1 | 3 | 4 | |
| Joel Teasdale | 8 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 10th QMJHL Rookies |
| In Goal | |||||
| Samuel Montembeault (5-3-0, 2.26, .930) | |||||
| Team Stats | Rank | ||||
| PP | 6/39=15.4% | 11th | |||
| PK | 6/34=82.4% | 8th | |||
| GF/gm | 2.37 | 12th | |||
| GA/gm | 2.25 | 4th |
NHL Drafted/Signed Players
Samuel Montembeault — Florida, 77th in 2015
NHL Central Scouting Mid-Term Rankings
MIguel Picard — No. 174
Under the Radar
Philippe Sanche plays bigger than his size. It’s remarkable he’s even playing after missing three-plus months in the regular season as a result of a broken leg. Sanche has a knack for playing well on Sportsnet.
ROUYN-NORANDA HUSKIES
Rouyn-Noranda was deemed a contender right from the start of the season. The recent Golden Puck Awards could’ve been renamed the Rouyn-Noranda Awards based on all the accolades given to the Huskies last week in Montreal. General manager and head coach Gilles Bouchard won the GM and coach of the year awards. Ottawa prospect Francis Perron won the Michel-Briere Trophy as the league’s MVP, while goalie Chase Marchand captured the Jacques Plante Trophy for the league’s best goals-against-average.
The Huskies finished with a franchise-best 113 points, ending the regular season on a 14-game win streak. The success continued into Round 1 with a four-game dismantling of Drummondville. Rouyn-Noranda was not quite up to par in Game 1 and lost on home ice to Blainville for just the fifth time in 38 regular season and playoff games combined.
Two key acquisitions were made to give Rouyn-Noranda more firepower for the playoffs. San Jose first-rounder Timo Meier was brought in from Halifax and took off, putting up 51 points in 29 regular-season games as a Huskie. Equally important is his team-first mentality. Nikolas Brouillard was brought in to add offence from the back-end and add another option to the Huskies power play. Ten of his 27 points in a Huskies uniform were counted with the man advantage.
Journeymen netminder Marchand is on his third QMJHL team after a brief stint in the OHL with Mississauga. He battled up-and-comer Samuel Harvey during the regular season to eventually take over at the end of the season and into the playoffs. Harvey did get into one game in the Drummondville series, but Marchand is the current No. 1.
Defensively, the Huskies are stacked. All seven defencemen have recorded at least a point, led by Brouillard with nine points. Boston prospect Jeremy Lauzon has good size and is a dangerous power-play weapon. Philippe Myers, a free-agent signee of Philadelphia has worked hard to hone his game and is a top-two pairing mainstay.
Jacob Neveu should be a mid-round pick in June. Bruno-Karl Denis and Allan Caron can be counted on to play a stay-at-home game. Rouyn-Noranda plays an up-tempo game, and its defencemen are required to be active and be part of the rush.
There’s no shortage of firepower up front. Eleven Huskies scored 15 or more goals. Meier has continued his fine play. He has no problems with the physical game and he can shoot the puck like a pro, with release, accuracy and hardness all equally impressive. Ottawa prospect Perron finished the regular season as just one of two players to crack the century mark in points, finishing seconnd in the league with 108.
A.J. Greer left Boston University in December to join the Huskies and he’s performed well, especially on the power play. The forward depth continues with Jean-Christophe Beaudin, who had 33 regular season goals, and Gabriel Fontaine, who finished second on the team with six game-winning goals. Martins Dzierkals is a slick playmaker who’s undersized but effective. Colorado prospect Julien Nantel can be an effective fore-checker, who has enough skill to be respected as a goal-scorer. Alexandre Fortin and Mathieu Boucher rank lower on the depth chart, but are effective in matchups against other team’s depth players.
| Rouyn-Noranda Huskies, 54-9-3-2 (30-2-2-0 Home) 1st West Division, 1st QMJHL, 1st BMO Top 10 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Series tied 1-1; defeated Drummondville 4-0 in Round 1 | |||||
| Individual Stats | |||||
| Top Scorers | GP | G | A | PTS | Note |
| Timo Meier | 6 | 9 | 5 | 14 | 1st QMJHL Pts |
| Francis Perron | 6 | 3 | 11 | 14 | 3rd QMJHL Pts |
| Jean-Christophe Beaudin | 6 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 11th QMJHL Pts |
| Anthony-John Greer | 6 | 5 | 4 | 9 | 14th QMJHL Pts |
| Nikolas Brouillard | 6 | 2 | 7 | 9 | 1st QMJHL D |
| In Goal | |||||
| Chase Marchand (4-1-0, 0.43, .980%) | |||||
| Team Stats | Rank | ||||
| PP | 18/33=47.4% | 1st | |||
| PK | 3/32=90.6% | 2nd | |||
| GF/gm | 6.33 | 1st | |||
| GA/gm | 0.83 | 1st |
NHL Drafted/Signed Players
Timo Meier — San Jose, 9th in 2015
Anthony-John Greer — Colorado, 39th in 2015
Jeremy Lauzon — Boston, 52nd in 2015
Martins Dzierkals — Toronto, 68th in 2015
Jean-Christophe Beaudin — Colorado, 71st in 2015
Francis Perron — Ottawa, 190th in 2014
Julien Nantel — Colorado, 204th in 2014
Philippe Myers — Signed with Philadelphia as FA
NHL Central Scouting Mid-Term Rankings
Jacob Neveu — No. 72
Under The Radar
Toronto’s emphasis on drafting skill had Martins Dzierkals picked in the third round of the 2015 draft. A good connection with Rouyn-Noranda has allowed Dzierkals to quicken his development as more than a point-per-game player through the regular season and into the playoffs.
