It’s no surprise to see the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies at the MasterCard Memorial Cup. The team finished the regular season with a string of 14 straight wins and No. 1 in the CHL Top 10 rankings. Then it rolled through the playoffs, losing only four games en route to capturing the team’s first President Cup as QMJHL champs.
Now it’s time to see how good this team really is.
The Huskies came out of nowhere—both geographically and in the standings—to dominate the QMJHL all season. Located in northern Quebec, more than seven hours from Montreal, Rouyn-Noranda is a textbook definition of a small-market. The Huskies finished the 2014-15 season in 11th place and bowed out in the first round losing to the rival Val-d’Or Foreurs before bursting onto the scene this season. With a solid roster of two-way forwards, middle-tier NHL prospects and a journeyman goaltender, the Huskies looked like a dark horse team—certainly not a team that would dominate the league all season long.
In this week’s edition, Jeff is joined by Sam Cosentino, Joey Kenward and Timo Meier for a wide-ranging MasterCard Memorial Cup preview.
Listen now | iTunes | Podcatchers
With a shot at a Memorial Cup looking more and more likely, the Huskies brought in Timo Meier from the Halifax Mooseheads and defenceman Nikolas Brouillard from the Québec Remparts for the home-stretch. They also benefited from A.J. Greer leaving Boston University mid-season to join the junior team that selected him in the 11th round of the 2013 QMJHL entry draft. Essentially brought in for free, Greer finished the five-game President Cup final with five goals, including two game-winners.
Here’s a look at what makes Rouyn-Noranda so dangerous and where they can be exposed:
Strengths
Chase the Ace
Veteran goaltender Chase Marchand has spent his junior career bouncing from team to team to team, claimed by three franchises on waivers—including the Mississauga Steelheads in the OHL—before signing with Rouyn-Noranda as a free agent in the off-season. The turbulent journey and having a cousin—Brad Marchand—in the NHL now are just anecdotes to what’s been a breakthrough season.
The winner of the Jacques Plante trophy for owning the best regular-season GAA, Marchand had a dominating record-setting playoffs. His .946 SV% and 1.35 GAA are both QMJHL records. To put that into context, the only other goaltender with a sub-2.00 GAA in the past 10 playoffs was Louis-Philip Guindon’s 1.84 mark with the Rimouski Océanic last year. Marchand also set a record for shoutouts (six) and the longest shutout streak, clocking in at 223:23.
It helps having a good defence in front of you—Marchand faced 20 or fewer shots in eight post-season games—but he played a major part in Rouyn-Noranda’s success. Case in point: he had a 1-0, 35-save shutout of the Moncton Wildcats in Game 4 of the semi-finals. With no room for error, Marchand prevented Moncton from tying the series. His one blemish came in Game 4 against Shawinigan when he was yanked halfway through the contest after letting in three goals in an eventual 6-4 Shawinigan victory. It was the fourth time in five nights he’d played (a broken pipe split Game 2 across two days), so we’ll cut him some slack.
This is a guy who has had to fight season after season to earn starts and he hasn’t cracked under pressure. Those looking for the clock to strike midnight on this Cinderella story have been forced to wait all season. Nothing seems to phase Marchand, who keeps proving the doubters wrong.
| Name | Pos | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | Pt/G |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Francis Perron | LW | 18 | 12 | 21 | 33 | 18 | 11 | 1.83 |
| Timo Meier | RW | 18 | 11 | 12 | 23 | 11 | 30 | 1.28 |
| Anthony-John Greer | LW | 20 | 12 | 10 | 22 | 14 | 28 | 1.1 |
| Nikolas Brouillard | D | 19 | 5 | 15 | 20 | 10 | 32 | 1.05 |
| Jean-Christophe Beaudin | C | 17 | 7 | 12 | 19 | 12 | 8 | 1.12 |
| Martins Dzierkals | RW | 20 | 7 | 10 | 17 | 13 | 12 | 0.85 |
| Gabriel Fontaine | C | 20 | 5 | 11 | 16 | 19 | 24 | 0.8 |
| Philippe Myers | D | 20 | 4 | 12 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 0.8 |
| Peter Abbandonato | C | 20 | 4 | 7 | 11 | 7 | 14 | 0.55 |
| Mathieu Boucher | LW | 20 | 3 | 7 | 10 | 6 | 2 | 0.5 |
| Julien Nantel | C | 20 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 5 | 12 | 0.4 |
| Jérémy Lauzon | D | 9 | 1 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 8 | 0.89 |
| Alexandre Fortin | LW | 20 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 0.35 |
| Antoine Waked | RW | 19 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 5 | 21 | 0.32 |
| Zachary Lauzon | D | 17 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 9 | 13 | 0.35 |
| Allan Caron | D | 19 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 12 | 24 | 0.26 |
| Jacob Neveu | D | 20 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 13 | 2 | 0.25 |
| Bruno-Carl Denis | D | 19 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 8 | 11 | 0.16 |
| Anthony Wojcik | LW | 13 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 0.08 |
| Chase Marchand | G | 19 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.05 |
| Samuel Harvey | G | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Johnatan Legault | D | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Name | Pos | GP | W | L | OTL | SO | GAA | SV% |
| Chase Marchand | G | 19 | 15 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 1.35 | 0.946 |
| Samuel Harvey | G | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2.31 | 0.907 |
Forwards who can score and defend
The Ottawa Senators have to feel pretty good about nabbing Francis Perron with the 190th pick of the 2014 NHL Entry Draft. The 6-foot, 170-lb. winger followed up a 108-point MVP regular season with a 33-point MVP post-season. The last guy in the ‘Q’ to do that was Jonathan Drouin with the Halifax Mooseheads in 2013.
Perron has been the only mainstay on the top line in part because of injuries and suspensions. With so many talented forwards, including six NHL draftees, any combination in the top six is a threat to score. Greer has found a home on the second line and was a consistent scoring threat in the President Cup final with five goals, seven points, those game winners and a eight PIM. The 6-foot-3, 205-lb. forward is hard to contain around the net and isn’t afraid to mix it up and get under the skin of the opposition between the whistles. The former Boston University product is showing why the Colorado Avalanche nabbed him with the 39th pick of last year’s draft.
Meier has 74 points in 51 regular-season and playoff games with the Huskies. (Jean Lapointe)
Speaking of Avalanche prospects, Jean-Christophe Beaudin and Julien Nantel were both drafted for their two-way abilities and play an integral part on both ends of the ice. Beaudin missed three games against Shawinigan, but is expected to play in the Memorial Cup. He’s a beast in the face-off circle, winning 59 percent of his draws and has seven goals—four on the power play and one shorthanded.
The bottom six has also chipped in with some timely markers including Antoine Waked who scored the lone goal in overtime in Game 3 against Blainville-Boisbriand. After being shut out twice in regulation in the first three games of the series, Rouyn-Noranda needed to find scoring from somewhere and the bottom six provided that much needed boost.
Mobile, two-way blueline
Rouyn-Noranda was able to shutdown Shawinigan without it’ best defenceman, Boston Bruins prospect Jérémy Lauzon, who missed the series after a skate to the neck against Moncton on April 15. The good news is he’ll be on the ice on Saturday against the Brandon Wheat Kings. Before the injury, he had eight points in nine games and is a key piece on the top power-play unit.
Nikolas Brouillard is annually near the top of the league in defensive scoring after posting four consecutive seasons of 57 or more points. More importantly, he is the only member of the Huskies with Memorial Cup experience after playing in the tournament with the host Québec Remparts last season. Against Shawinigan he was another one of the guys in the middle of a lot of scrums. He’s a pest who’s no fun to play against and also is dangerous as evidenced by his 20 post-season points, third in D-man scoring.
Philippe Myers is yet another Huskies player enjoying a breakout season after seeing his point totals go from four to eight, then explode to 45 this campaign. He led the league in plus-minus in the regular season at plus-52 and scored an entry-level contract with the Philadelphia Flyers. He stepped up in the absence of Lauzon, scoring three of four goals—all on the power play—in the final against Shawinigan.
Marchand had a record-setting QMJHL post-season. (Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images)
Elite special teams
The Huskies were downright nasty on the power play, going 31-for-96 for a league-best 32.3 percent. They finished fourth in penalty killing, giving up 13 goals on 88 times short handed and managed five shorthanded scores. That means 35 of Rouyn-Noranda’s 88 goals (40 percent) came on special teams.
Weaknesses
After a dominating end to the regular season and a relatively flawless playoff, it’s hard to pick out too many weaknesses with Rouyn-Noranda. But there are a couple question marks and unknowns that could lead to losses.
Inexperience
One of the oldest franchises in the QMJHL, this is the first time the Huskies have been in the Memorial Cup since moving to Rouyn-Noranda from Saint-Hyacinthe in 1996. The franchise hasn’t won the national championship since 1970 when the team was known as the Montreal Junior Candiens.
The Huskies haven’t had much success the past couple seasons. The team lost in the first round last year were swept by the Baie-Comeau Drakkar in the second round in 2014. Outside of Meier with Halifax, Brouillard with Québec and Perron with the Huskies in 2013, this team hasn’t seen a lot of playoff action. They only went to overtime once in the playoffs, so it’s impossible to project what could happen if any of the tournament games go to extra time.
With all due respect to the top lines of the Moncton Wildcats and Shawinigan Cataractes, Rouyn-Noranda also hasn’t faced a top line like London’s Matthews Tkachuk-Christian Dvorak-Mitch Marner unit. The Huskies are going to have to figure out how to shut down elite teams in a hurry.
Injury concerns
Lauzon and Beaudin are both expected to return, but Lauzon spent a good chunk of the past month in a neck brace with limited mobility. He’ll need to pick up where he left off.
Jérémy Lauzon vient d'obtenir le feu vert pour s'entraîner avec l'équipe! Il sera en uniforme dès demain sur la patinoire!
— Huskies RN (@HuskiesRn) May 16, 2016
Is it Timo Time yet?
The biggest trade of the season brought in Meier from Halifax for a handful of draft picks. He came as advertised, scoring 51 points in 29 games in the regular season. The San Jose Sharks first-rounder looked downright scary in the first round against Drummondville, scoring eight goals in the four-game sweep.
It may not be time to put up missing posters quite yet, but it’s concerning to see him only score one goal in each of the other three series. Take away the 13 points in the first round and he’s only had 10 in 14 games since. He also got into hot water with two one-game suspensions during the series against the Moncton Wildcats. Meier needs to steal the show in the Memorial Cup for Rouyn-Noranda to win it all.