Does QMJHL have bias against the Maritimes?

Halifax head coach Dominique Ducharme questioned whether some penalties called against his team would have been penalties for the Remparts Thursday night. (Jacques Boissinot/CP)

QMJHL BIAS AGAINST MARITIMES?

Former Saint John Sea Dogs head coach Gerard Gallant earned a $500 fine at the 2012 MasterCard Memorial Cup for lamenting his team getting the “short end of the stick” where officiating was concerned.

On the same night when Quebec Remparts forward Anthony Duclair made headlines with a two-goal, five-assist night over last year’s MasterCard Memorial Cup champion Halifax Mooseheads, the same criticism crept in. Halifax head coach Dominique Ducharme questioned whether some penalties called against his team would have been penalties for the Remparts.

“We have to ask some serious questions how penalties are being called,” Ducharme told RDS’ Stephane Leroux. “It seems like where the Remparts are concerned, it’s different.”

The Remparts ran away with Thursday’s game, winning 8-2 thanks in large part due to a 16-3 margin in power plays. Two Mooseheads, Luca Ciampini and Andrew Ryan, were each suspended one game, leaving Ducharme wondering why his team is “treated differently than the Remparts,” while also suggesting there were a few phantom calls in this interview with John Moore.

Ducharme may have a point when considering the previous meeting between the two on Dec. 6. As a refresher, Adam Erne gave Jonathan Drouin a concussion by pasting him into the boards from behind on this check, which didn’t result in any supplemental discipline for Erne.

Sit in any coach’s office around the league after a game and one constant complaint is with which the game is called. Officiating is a source of frustration most nights, but it’s understandable Ducharme feels the way he does considering the Remparts escaped suspension in the first meeting, while his team did not in the second.

The Remparts and Mooseheads won’t meet again in the regular season. Should they meet in the post-season, one can only imagine how heated a seven-game series would be.

STING FOR SALE

One of junior hockey’s least successful franchises is for sale.

The Sarnia Sting, under the direction of owners Rob and Larry Ciccarelli, have suffered on the ice and in the pocketbook since their move from Newmarket, Ont. in 1994. There has been a steady flow of coaches and managers over the years, a continual rebuilding project that failed to peak and bear fruit for the patient owners.

The disappointment from the team’s lacklustre play on the ice notwithstanding, the constant financial losses in operating the team and arena reached a breaking point. In an interview with the Sarnia Observer in 2012, Rob Ciccarelli said the team had lost $1.4-million the previous four seasons. Add in the arena, which Ciccarelli also said lost around $250,000 per year, and it’s understandable why the “For Sale” sign is up in Sarnia.

Although the Ciccarelli’s are looking to sell, their hope is an owner will want to keep the team in Sarnia, while also transferring the arena operations to the city.

In an interview with the Observer in Oct. 2012, Rob Ciccarelli foreshadowed this day could come. His comments then, however, should be alarming to any Sting fan in Lambton County.

“I have people say, ‘why don’t you sell the team?’ It’s not that easy, you know? Sure, if we sell the team and someone moves it to Michigan, is that the right thing to do? I love the league, I love our community. I want to keep the team here as long as we can. That’s our goal. And that’s probably the main reason we haven’t seriously looked at any offers – there haven’t been any to keep the team in Sarnia.”

The situation is different than it was in Bathurst and Charlottetown last summer, when the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League made an offer to buy the team from current ownership with the intentions in selling it to a group that would relocate it. The deadlines were met in both situations with a large group of owners saving each franchise. It remains to be seen if the same can happen for the Sting in Sarnia.

DRIEDGER SCORES GOAL

Calgary Hitmen goalie Chris Driedger became just the sixth goalie in Western Hockey League history — and first in 10 years — to be credited with a goal on Saturday.

It was more Billy Smith than Ron Hextall, but it counts all the same.

Driedger opened the scoring in his team’s 5-2 loss at Kootenay, earning the respect of his counterpart Mackenzie Skapski, who was on the bench during the play.

It was a big week for Driedger, who also became the Hitmen record-holder for most saves in a career with 3,375 and counting, surpassing Los Angeles Kings netminder Martin Jones.

REINHART, MORRISSEY SQUARE OFF

Less than a month removed from teaming up on Canada’s world junior entry, Kootenay forward and top draft prospect Sam Reinhart dropped the gloves with Prince Albert captain Josh Morrissey on Friday.

It was the first fight of Reinhart’s career and he certainly held his own with the Winnipeg Jets’ first round pick.

Reinhart kidded during a conference call with media prior to the BMO CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game in January that he may have to drop the gloves with opposing captain and fellow world junior teammate Aaron Ekblad. They didn’t, but Ekblad found another former teammate to do likewise on the weekend.

BROWN FIRST TO 100

Those who questioned Hockey Canada for leaving Erie Otters forward Connor Brown off the team aren’t quieting any time soon.

The Toronto Maple Leafs’ prospect reached the century mark in just 48 games this season, taking just a few more games to do so than former first overall pick John Tavares.

Brown has failed to reach the score sheet in only eight games this season and only once went pointless in back-to-back games. Thanks in part to Brown’s huge offensive numbers, the Otters are leading the league in points after finishing with the second-fewest last season. His teammate, Dane Fox, won’t take long to reach triple digits either with 88 points in 51 games.

— The Sudbury Wolves retired former player and current London Knights head coach Dale Hunter’s jersey No. 15.

— Yahoo’s Neate Sager takes a look at how first-overall pick Travis Konecny’s rookie season stacks up against previous 16-year-olds in the OHL.

— Rimouski defender and Philadelphia Flyers first-round pick, Samuel Morin, was suspended two games for throwing his stick in the crowd.

— Another line brawl last week, this one between Plymouth and Kingston on Friday:

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