CHL Notebook: Sergachev gets chance to respond

Defenceman Mikhail Sergachev of the Windsor Spitfires. (Terry Wilson/OHL Images)

The Windsor Spitfires will get some fairly quick feedback on whether coach Rocky Thompson lost a battle to win the war when he benched star defenceman Mikhail Sergachev during a defeat on Sunday.

While Twitter parody accounts – it’s NHL trade deadline week, so always look for the blue verified checkmark – keep purporting that the Montreal Canadiens first-rounder has been moved as part of a blockbuster, Sergachev was stuck in place. Thompson took decisive action when Sergachev incurred his second stick infraction of the game late in the second period, then compounded the undisciplined penalty by getting an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. Without their workhorse on the blue-line and the added burden of starting the final period with a nearly four-minute penalty kill, the Spitfires allowed four unanswered goals to lose to the eighth-place Sarnia Sting.

That is one way to demonstrate the need for winning habits. Sergachev, to be fair, has only 61 penalty minutes across 41 games this season and was penalty-free in the four games prior to Sunday.

The timing of the move is unmistakable, with the MasterCard Memorial Cup-host Spitfires due to welcome the high-pace Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds on Thursday. Calling it a first-place showdown is a mild stretch since the ‘Hounds have a five-point lead in the OHL West Division with nine games left, but the Spitfires absolutely need a regulation-time win to sustain hope of winning the division and receiving the Western Conference’s No. 2 seed.

It will be interesting to see how Sergachev and the Spitfires, who have had six weeks to get used to life without Logan Stanley (injured in January), respond this week. Windsor (.678 point pct.) is fifth overall in the league, but is 5-8-2-1 against the four higher-placed teams in the Western Conference. That includes being winless in three fixtures against the Owen Sound Attack, who would be their first-round opponent if the playoffs started this week.

Even with the Memorial Cup ticket stamped for mid-May, there is a time to sweat the small stuff.

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Wildcats stanch the bleeding

Moncton Wildcats fans, take heart. Two other QMJHL teams that went at least 25 games without a win made out pretty well in the long run.

The Wildcats ended their skein of defeats – 0-22-2-1 – with a last-minute 5-4 win against the Sherbrooke Phoenix last Saturday. It was Moncton’s first win since Dec. 17, the day before the start of the league’s trade period. The Wildcats turned over nearly all of their veterans at deadline. One of the newcomers, 18-year-old defenceman Louis-Philip Fortin, also went down with an injury after only six games.

In 1990-91, the Victoriaville Tigres went winless for 28 games and wound up getting Alexandre Daigle, a future NHL first overall pick. In 2010-11, the Baie-Comeau Drakkar went winless in 25 games and won the coin flip to take Nathan MacKinnon No. 1 overall. The return from the Halifax Mooseheads for MacKinnon’s rights helped the Drakkar build the nucleus for teams that went to the QMJHL final in 2013 and ’14.

Moncton’s feat of futility coincides with the rollout of a five-team lottery for the No. 1 pick. The last-place team gets nine of 21 balls, with the other laggards receiving six, three, two and one in reverse order of finish. In other words, the Wildcats have the highest odds of landing hyped 15-year-old Quebec forward Alexis Lafrenière of the Saint-Eustache Vikings, but it’s no sure thing.

A beautiful thing

In case anyone needed affirmation of the hold The Tragically Hip have on their fanbase, there is the final tally from the Kingston Frontenacs’ fundraising auction for the Gord Downie Fund for Brain Cancer Research through Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto. On Monday, the Fronts turned over a donation of $73,383.98 from the auction of 23 Hip-themed jerseys made for a game on Jan. 28, plus one additional jersey. That works out to more than $3,000 per sweater.

There are some parts of sports that are a lot more important than wins and championships.

Canadian NHL team prospect of the week: Dillon Dube, C, Kelowna Rockets (WHL)

The Rockets took six of eight possible points from a four-game week, with Dube leading the way by scoring or assisting on 10 of their 30 goals during that span. The Calgary Flames prospect (No. 56 overall in 2016) had a point drought midway through January after the high of playing for Team Canada in the world junior championship faded, but he has picked up his play to help the Rockets chase down home-ice advantage for the first round of the playoffs.

New names to know: Dawson Barteaux, D, and Jacob Herauf, D, Red Deer Rebels (WHL)

The Rebels are running with five rookies in the rotation on defence, including 16-year-olds Barteaux and Herauf. Yet coach Brent Sutter’s team is in a playoff position in the WHL Central Division.

The pair were selected two picks apart in the first round of the 2015 bantam draft, with Barteaux coming to Red Deer from the Regina Pats in the deadline deal for veteran defenceman Josh Mahura. It’s early yet, but there’s a chance for the two to give the Rebels a foundation on the back end for two to three seasons.

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