Every team had a chance to make ground in the standings this week as they all played a home and home series with a division rival. In the East Division, the Baie-Comeau Drakkar continued their five-game winning streak with two wins over the league-leading Rimouski Océanic. The West Division is still being led by the Sherbrooke Phoenix who got strong goaltending from both goalies this week.
The Maritimes Division may be the most unpredictable in the Q this season. The Halifax Mooseheads dominated the division the past two seasons but are no longer a powerhouse with many players from their 2013 Memorial Cup–winning squad now in the NHL or not on the team. The Sea Dogs are off to a surprisingly good start after finishing at the bottom last season. The Wildcats have been on a tear since Ivan Barbashev returned from St. Louis Blues training camp. The Screaming Eagles have exciting Russian rookie Evgeny Svechnikov who could win the rookie scoring title and Cape Breton local Kyle Farrell has been top three in points for the entire league all season. Charlottetown forwards Filip Chlapik and Daniel Sprong could both go in the first round of the NHL draft this season and they have Mason McDonald, the first goalie selected in the last NHL draft, between the pipes. With rivalry week, one of these teams had a chance to start to pull ahead in the division, but all six split their home and home series with the home teams winning all six games, so the division picture is just as unsettled as before the weekend.
Here’s a recap of rivalry week:
Maritimes Division
Moncton Wildcats vs. Saint John Sea Dogs
In a Maritimes Division that is up for grabs, a sweep would have pushed either the Wildcats or the Sea Dogs to the top of the division. While this may have had all the makings of an epic home-and-home series, it ended up featuring two completely lopsided affairs. The Wildcats won 7–0 on home ice, led by captain Christophe Lalonde’s two goals and three assists. Saint John returned the favour the next night with a 7–1 win. NHL draft prospect Nathan Noel had a pair of goals and two assists to lead the way.
Halifax Mooseheads vs. Cape Breton Screaming Eagles
The Mooseheads looked poised to sweep the battle of Nova Scotia. They won on home ice 5–2 on the strength of two goals and an assist from Winnipeg Jets first rounder Nikolaj Ehlers. They had a 1–0 lead in Cape Breton from early in the second period until the 16:45 mark of the third, when the Screaming Eagles scored four goals in the final four minutes to split the series. Cape Breton centre Cameron Darcy, selected in the seventh round by the Tampa Bay Lightening last spring, finished the game with two assists and an empty net goal.
Acadie-Bathurst Titan vs. Charlottetown Islanders
Charlottetown’s backup goalie Daryl MacCallum stopped 40 shots on Sunday, but still picked up a loss as last-place team Bathurst won their fifth of the season. Bathurst rookie right winger Egor Popov is second in team scoring with 11 points, though he’s gone pointless in his last four games and has yet to find the back of the net.
East Division
Baie-Comeau Drakkar vs. Rimouski Océanic
The Drakkar continue to surge up the standings, winning five games in a row including both games this weekend against the league-leading Océanic. Goaltender Philippe Cadorette had back-to-back shutouts on Thursday and Friday, first turning away 18 Quebec Remparts shots, then 41 from Rimouski. Rimouski fired another 42 shots on Cadorette on Sunday but lost 3–2 in a shoot out. Cadorette hasn’t lost in October and has seven wins a 1.67 GAA and 0.947 save percentage on the month.
Quebec Remparts vs. Chicoutimi Saguenéens
Chicoutimi won the first game 3–2 with captain Laurent Dauphin scoring twice. The next game wasn’t nearly as tight with the Remparts hammering the Saguenéens 7–2. Adam Erne led the charge with three goals and an assist. The Tampa Bay Lightening second rounder now has seven goals and seven assists in eight games and is the focal point of the Remparts offence while Anthony Duclair remains in the NHL. Between the world juniors this winter and the Memorial Cup in the spring, expect to hear Erne’s name lots.
Victoriaville Tigres vs Shawinigan Cataractes
Arizona Coyotes prospect Yan Pavel Laplante led the Tigres to a home-and-home sweep of the Cataractes. On Friday, he scored the game-winning goal late in the second period and added an insurance marker in the third. On Sunday he opened the scoring with his eighth goal of the season. Laplante missed most of the 2012–13 season with a shoulder injury but had a solid return to the league last year with 42 points in 63 games. So far this season he has 12 points in nine.
West Division
Drummondville Voltigeurs vs. Sherbooke Phoenix
Sherbrooke rookie Kay Schweri’s streak of assists—he went nine games in a row with 15 helpers—came to an end this week. But he cranked up his goal total, scoring his second, third and fourth of the season. The right winger now leads rookie scoring with 25 points and is second behind Rimouski’s Alexis Loiseau in league scoring. Sherbrooke won all three games this weekend, including sweeping a home-and-home series with Drummondville. Rookie Evan Fitzpatrick picked up his first shutout in the Q on Sunday with 26 saves against the Voltigeurs.
Rouyn Noranda Huskies vs. Val-d’Or Foreurs
The Huskies boast the league’s top two goalies in goals against—Alexandre Bélanger (1.98) and Samuel Harvey (2.39). This weekend, it was Bélanger who backstopped the Huskies to a sweep over Val-d’Or. He had an easy night Friday, facing just 13 shots in a 4–1 Huskies win. The weekend’s workload balanced out on Sunday when the Foreurs unloaded 40 shots on him. Bélanger allowed three but the team still won 5–3. He’s also rocking a sweet set of pink pads for breast cancer awareness.
Blainville-Boisbriand Armada vs. Gatineau Olympiques
Centre Danick Martel has helped the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada get back on track after a sluggish start. He had three goals and an assist in his team’s sweep of Gatineau. The Armada have now won four games in a row and picked up points in their past five games.
Three Stars of the Week
Philippe Cadorette, G, Baie-Comeau Drakkar: As mentioned above, Cadorette was absolutely dominant this week and has been hot all month. This week he picked up 3 wins, 2 shutouts, a 0.65 GAA, 0.980 save percentage and first star of the week honours.
Yan Pavel Laplante, LW, Victoriaville Tigres: The Tigres forward put up five points in two games against Shawinigan. He was the second star of Friday’s game with the game winning goal, another goal and an assist. On Sunday, he picked up first star of the game honours with his goal and assist.
Alex Bureau, C, Sherbrooke Phoenix: Bureau picked up two wins this week with 26 saves against Shawinigan on Thursday and then 28 saves in a shootout win over Drummondville on Friday. He got a rest on Sunday, when he watched backup rookie Evan Fitzpatrick pick up his first career shutout.
2015 NHL draft prospect watch
Nathan Noel, C, Saint John Sea Dogs
Noel was dominant in the Sea Dogs 7–1 win over Moncton. The six-foot, 168-lb. forward scored two goals and two assists in the game. On the season he has eight goals in 13 games and should best his rookie mark of 16 goals in 63 games from last season. He’s projected to go in the second round of this year’s draft.
Jérémy Lauzon, D, Rouyn-Noranda Huskies
The six-foot-two, 193-lb. defenceman had goals in both games he played this weekend. He’s a competitive two-way player who sees special teams time on the penalty kill and the second power play unit. Last season he played 55 games, had five goals, 11 assists and 64 PIM. While scoring points isn’t his main role from the blueline, he’s on pace to best last year’s totals as he has two goals and four assists through 14 games. Here’s a profile of Lauzon featuring game footage I shot for Sportsandmoore.com