They’re both assured of spots in the Memorial Cup, but that doesn’t mean it’ll be easy going for the Halifax Mooseheads or Rouyn-Noranda Huskies in the lead up to the tournament.
Since Halifax is hosting this year’s Memorial Cup, their 2-1 overtime victory over the Drummondville Voltigeurs on the weekend means Rouyn-Noranda also earns a spot in the tournament after advancing to the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League final with a sweep of the Rimouski Oceanic in Round 3.
“We knew from day one that we had a chance to compete for one trophy, the Memorial Cup,” Halifax head coach Eric Veilleux said. “We didn’t talk about it, but the guys knew it. Now we have a chance to play for another one and the other one came with a more difficult road. There were a lot of sacrifices, a lot of emotional ups and downs. These guys are learning about how they are right now. They’re getting to know each other and how they react in certain situations. That can only be beneficial for the rest of the season.”
Against Drummondville, Veilleux said Mooseheads netminder Alexis Gravel was a difference-maker.
“He was outstanding,” Veilleux said.
“He seems to be in his zone. Since the Quebec series, he maybe had a little bit of a rough start, but he came out of it. When you’re a goaltender, it’s not like being a defenceman where you have a partner or a forward who has two linemates.
“Gravel has been outstanding,” Veilleux added. “After the start we had against Quebec, he took himself to another level.”
Veilleux said Drummondville was “one of the fastest teams I’ve seen in junior hockey.”
“They had the ability to make plays at a very fast pace and defending that wasn’t (easy),” he said. “A lot of credit goes to our guys.”
After facing a high-scoring offence in the Drummondville series, the league final against the Huskies poses a similar threat for the Mooseheads.
“It’s going to be a very similar series,” Veilleux said. “In the playoffs, it’s an emotional game. There are ups and downs and it’s mostly about how you react to those moments that makes the difference. We’ll have to keep staying composed with the good and the bad.”
The Mooseheads got an added boost against Drummondville thanks to the return of Benoit-Olivier Groulx after an extended period out of the lineup.
Groulx got into four games in the series and had four assists in his first game action since late in the regular season.
“He’s just a big, physical presence,” Veilleux said. “He brings physicality to our team. He’s a big body who can do it all. He’s good on the power play. He’s good on faceoffs. He’s good defensively.
“For him to step in like that in a series against Drummondville, it’s quite an accomplishment in itself,” Veilleux added. “The pace gets faster as the series goes on and even as the game goes on. For him to step in and play the way he did is something special. He’s fresh right now and he’s feeling good. I expect his game to improve as the games go on.”
The Huskies enter the final after sweeping Rimouski and have lost just twice in the post-season, both of which were in Round 1 against the Shawinigan Cataractes.
There were few surprises from the Huskies in Round 3 as the team continued to score at a high rate while not sacrificing the defensive side of the puck.
Prior to the Rimouski series, Huskies coach Mario Pouliot said, “we’re proud of our defensive game.”
It’s tough to blame him.
After giving up just 138 goals in regular season action, the Huskies maintained that pace and have surrendered just 26 more in 14 playoff contests, including only nine in four games against the offensively talented Oceanic.
While the Huskies added a pair of impact players ahead of the QMJHL trade deadline in Joel Teasdale (Montreal Canadiens) from the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada and Noah Dobson (New York Islanders) from the Acadie-Bathurst Titan, much of the Rouyn-Noranda roster was built through the draft.
“The thing is, when you look closely at our lineup, 20 players of the 23 were drafted by our organization,” Pouliot said earlier in the playoffs. “It’s one of our best assets. All of the players grew together. Our team chemistry is amazing. Those kids grew up together. They know our team DNA and what it means to be a Husky.”
Solid drafting has allowed the Huskies to rebuild quickly after a Memorial Cup run in 2016 when the team advanced to the tournament in Red Deer, Alta.
In addition to the tournament experience added by bringing in Dobson, who won the event with Acadie-Bathurst last season, the team has some holdovers from 2016 as well. Goaltender Samuel Harvey, who got into four playoff games that season as a backup to Chase Marchand, is this year’s starter. Overage defenceman Jacob Neveu, who was a regular in in the lineup in his second full season with the team, has a bigger role today. And forward Peter Abbandonato, who was in his first season with the club and scored four goals and 11 points in 20 playoff games, was the Huskies’ highest-scoring player this season.
The QMJHL final is set to open Thursday night in Rouyn-Noranda with Game 2 set for Friday before the series shifts to Halifax for Games 3 and 4.
If necessary, Game 5 is May 9 in Rouyn-Noranda, Game 6 is May 11 in Halifax and, if the series goes the distance, Game 7 is May 13 in Rouyn-Noranda.
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