The finale, and the preview
Memorial Cup-bound Huskies and Mooseheads face off for QMJHL title
On Wednesday, May 22, the Halifax Mooseheads and RouynNoranda Huskies will face off at the Scotiabank Centre in the Nova Scotia capital. That is the date the two sides will tangle at this year’s Memorial Cup, but prior to that, there is the small matter of crowning a Quebec Major Junior Hockey League President’s Cup champion.
Halifax did not have home ice their semifinal against Drummondville, but following a sixgame series victory the dream of going through the front door to the national championship is still alive for the Mooseheads. The Huskies, winners of the Jean Rougeau Trophy for the best regular-season record, swept Rimouski and headed into the QMJHL final on a 10-game winning streak. With Halifax being the host of this year’s Memorial Cup tournament, the Herd being in the final means both QMJHL teams have already punched their ticket to the event.
This year’s Mooseheads will be the most successful Memorial Cup host in their league playoffs in four years. The two most recent tournament hosts, Regina in 2018 and Windsor in 2017, were both eliminated in the opening round of their playoffs (although Windsor would go on to win the Memorial Cup.) You have to go back to 2015 — the most recent Cup tournament hosted by a QMJHL team — to find a host team that made their league’s fourth round.
In 2015 Rimouski defeated the host Québec Remparts in seven games, with future Screaming Eagle Michael Joly scoring the series-winner in double overtime. If the competitiveness of that showdown is in any indication, neither this year’s Huskies nor Mooseheads will be looking ahead to the Memorial Cup and will consider hoisting the President’s Cup just as important as winning the competition in late May.
Despite the absence of Peter Abbandonato, who led both the regular season and playoffs in scoring prior to leaving the lineup because of mono, the Huskies did not slow down in sweeping Rimouski. After uncharacteristically struggling in the first four matches versus bottom-feeding Shawinigan, Rouyn-Noranda has not just won, but in dominant fashion. In the 10-game winning streak leading up to this series, the Huskies outshot their opponents by more than 10 shots in every single contest and nine of the 10 victories came by at least two goals.
While hired guns Joël Teasdale and Noah Dobson continued to star, homegrown 19-year-old Félix Bibeau has taken his performance up another notch for the Abitibi squad. A point-agame player during the regular season, the third-year forward was dominant in the sweep over the Océanic, scoring in every outing and notching seven points against Rimouski.
For the Mooseheads, the last hurdle to the final was more difficult but no less impressive. Home advantage was critical in the battle with Drummondville, as the fans went home happy from five of the six games. The exception was Game 2 as the Nova Scotian side stole home ice with a double-overtime victory courtesy of Arnaud Durandeau’s winner. The Mooseheads also needed overtime in the sixth contest, and Xavier Parent’s tally marked the first time Halifax ever clinched a series at the Scotiabank Centre with an overtime victory.
Mono may have sidelined Abbandonato, but Benoit-Olivier Groulx returned unexpectedly early from the same condition for Halifax and averaged an assist a night through four appearances. The absence of the Huskies star has also allowed Mooseheads power forward Raphaël Lavoie to become the playoffs’ leading point-getter. Lavoie has scored an absurd 17 post-season goals, six more than second-place Bibeau and Teasdale. Second place in the entire Canadian Hockey league has only 13 (Guelph’s Nick Suzuki, a Montreal Canadiens prospect).
During the regular season Rouyn-Noranda finished first in the league with a record of 59-8-1, 17 points ahead of Halifax (49-154). These clubs met twice before the final in 2019, with the Huskies winning 5-4 in January on the road, and winning 8-4 at home in March. But despite both meetings taking place after the trading period, the rosters for those games may not fully indicate what to expect in this matchup.
Abbandonato has resumed skating with his team but has not practiced with contact. Meanwhile, Groulx’s returned to the Halifax lineup in Game 3 against Drummondville marked the first time in 2018-19 that the Mooseheads iced a full squad.
The 2019 QMJHL final got underway Thursday night in Rouyn-Noranda. Their Memorial Cup opponents are also being determined as Ottawa battles Guelph in the OHL’s last round while Prince Albert takes on Vancouver in the WHL.
Patrick McNeil is the play-by-play announcer with the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles. It took him two weeks to clean the DVR after the Eagles were eliminated. Email him at cbsepbp@gmail.com, or Twitter: cbse_pbp.