‘They’re confident and we’re confident’
Eagles, Saguenéens preach discipline as Round 2 of QMJHL playoffs begins Friday
SYDNEY — The Cape Breton Eagles and Chicoutimi Saguenéens have arguably been two of the hottest teams since the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League winter trade period.
Cape Breton finished the regular season on a nine-game winning streak while Chicoutimi was 6-3-0-1 in their last 10 games. The teams’ strong play continued in the playoffs.
The Eagles, who finished fourth in the Eastern Conference standings, eliminated the No. 5 seed Rimouski Océanic in five games, while the No. 6 seed Saguenéens swept the No. 3 seed Moncton Wildcats in four games.
In a surprising turn of events, the No. 7 seed AcadieBathurst Titan eliminated the No. 2 seed Halifax Mooseheads in four games, while the No. 1 seed Baie-Comeau Drakkar took care of business, sweeping the No. 8 seed Charlottetown Islanders in four games.
The Drakkar and Titan series wins set up a secondround matchup between the Eagles and Saguenéens, which begins on Friday and Saturday with Games 1 and 2 at Centre 200 in Sydney.
Cape Breton will have home-ice advantage in the second round of the playoffs for the first time in 17 years – the last coming in 2007 when the club advanced to the league’s semifinal series against the Val-d’Or Foreurs.
The series will mark the fourth playoff meeting between Cape Breton and Chicoutimi and the first since 2016 when the Eagles eliminated the Saguenéens in six games in round one.
Cape Breton and Chicoutimi also met in 2004, a year in which the Eagles were considered to be the league favourites to win, but the Saguenéens took that series in five games in the second round.
The first playoff meeting between the Eagles and Saguenéens came in 2001 with Cape Breton eliminating Chicoutimi in seven games to advance to the second round of
the playoffs for the first time in franchise history.
Eagles head coach Louis Robitaille acknowledged both teams’ play in the second half of the season and into the playoffs.
“They’re confident and we’re confident and it’s going to be a good matchup with two teams who finished the season well and that are excited to be where they are right now,” said Robitaille.
“Look at their numbers since the trade deadline, they’re red hot and they’re probably one of the best teams in the league right now.”
Saguenéens head coach Yanick Jean also showed respect for the Eagles and the success they’ve had this season and in the playoffs to date.
“I know one thing, Sylvain Couturier did an outstanding job with this team in the last two years,” said Jean. “At Christmas, he made key deals to be able to bring in maturity to his hockey team with the acquisition of (Tomas) Cibulka and (Lucas) Romeo — that’s what I know about them.”
Cape Breton has only advanced past the second round
twice since 1997, while Chicoutimi has been in the league semifinal five times since 1997, the last coming in 2021.
DISCIPLINE IS KEY
During the regular season, special teams were an important aspect of both Cape Breton and Chicoutimi.
The Eagles had the secondbest penalty kill in the league at 81.4 per cent while the team’s power play improved in the second half of the year to 20.9 per cent.
As for the Saguenéens, the team had the third-best power play in the league at 26.4 per cent and was 80 per cent on the penalty kill.
Robitaille said his team will need to stay out of the penalty box in the series.
“We’re going to have to be disciplined,” he said. “They have one of the best power plays in the league and their players are comfortable in their spot on the power play and you can tell there’s a lot of cohesion there.”
On the other side, Jean also preached discipline as a key to success against the Eagles.
“It’s the most important thing for me, personally,” said Jean, noting his team was disciplined in their series with Moncton. “Other people can think different, but for me, discipline is the most important thing in the playoffs.”
In the playoffs, Cape Breton’s power play is working at 25 per cent while the penalty kill is at 65 per cent.
For Chicoutimi, the team’s power play is second amongst playoff teams at 35.3 per cent and the club’s penalty kill is second-best at 92.9 per cent, only behind the Titan who
have a perfect penalty kill at 100 per cent.
FOCUSING ON THEIR OWN GAME
Cape Breton and Chicoutimi are similar when it comes to age groups but also have the same mindset going into the second round of the playoffs.
Both are focused on themselves and not what the other team is doing.
“We just have to play our game and play to our identity,” said Robitaille. “We’re a team that’s physical, we’re good without the puck but we’re also dynamic offensively and we need everybody to contribute just like we had in the first round.”
Jean had a similar approach when asked how they plan to handle the Eagles.
“We focus on us,” said Jean. “It doesn’t matter who’s in front of us, we really focus on us.”
Robitaille said one of the things he liked about his team against Rimouski was the club’s resilience.
“I liked the commitment and the engagement, and I thought everybody bought in and accepted their role,” he said. “Rimouski showed us that it’s never over until the end, even though we were up 3-0, we had to close that last game.”
Robitaille acknowledged the experience the team gained by winning the playoff series.
“We didn’t have a whole lot of experience with guys winning a playoff round as leaders,” said Robitaille. “For them to go through it, I think it’s a good thing moving forward.”
Jean said the maturity his young team showed was one of his takeaways from the series with the Wildcats.
“They started running after us a little bit in Game 2 and we stayed really disciplined,” he said. “We were able to take advantage of some power plays and that’s the heart and soul of our team is our discipline and we’re good at that.”
TEAMS OVERALL
The Eagles’ offensive production has been spread around in the playoffs with six players having two or more goals, but the top line of Cam Squires, Cam MacDonald and Jacob Newcombe had a strong series against Rimouski.
“I thought they played really well, both with and without the puck,” said Robitaille of the top line.
“I look at Cam Squires’ numbers. He was a +11 in that series and he blocked shots for us and played physical at times. He’s a leader on and off the ice for us and for me to see him have that success in the playoffs, I’m really happy for him.”
Former Eagle first-round pick Thomas Desruisseaux, who requested a trade from Cape Breton in December 2022, leads the Saguenéens with two goals and eight points in four playoff games.
“He was able to improve from Day 1 during the year and he never stopped improving all year long and he got rewarded in the playoffs,” said Jean. “He was good at the end of the year and he kept building up in the playoffs and he was efficient for us in the first round.”
Craig Armstrong had two goals and six points in four games while Émile Duquet had three goals and four points in four games to round out the club’s top three in playoff scoring.
Another player who will be watched closely in the series is Maxim Massé, who is the league’s top-ranked player going into the NHL Entry Draft in June. He had 36 goals and 75 points in 67 games in the regular season.
Chicoutimi’s Émile Guité was given the Michel Bergeron Trophy as the league’s rookie of the year earlier this week.
Secondary scoring was key for the Eagles against Rimouski and Robitaille expects that to continue against Chicoutimi.
“You can’t be a one-line team in the playoffs because at some point your top line will be out of the scoresheet,” said Robitaille. “They still have to bring a lot to the table and you need secondary scoring and that was huge for us in the last round.”
Defensively, the teams were good in the regular season with Cape Breton only allowing 194 goals while Chicoutimi allowed 229 against, both in 68 games.
Tomas Cibulka, Tomas Lavoie, Brayden Schmitt and Xavier Daigle lead the blueline for Cape Breton while Jonathan Desrosiers and Buffalo Sabres prospect Norwin Panocha are two of the top defencemen for Chicoutimi.
In nets, Cape Breton’s Nicolas Ruccia and Chicoutimi’s Rémi Delafontaine played together during the 2021-22 season with the Eagles. Both had strong 2023-24 campaigns.
In the playoffs, Ruccia is 4-1-0 with a 2.42 goalsagainst average and a .912 save percentage. As for Delafontaine, he’s 4-0-0 with a 2.00 goals-against average and a .939 save percentage.
Tickets for both Eagles' home games are going quickly and as of publication time, Friday’s contest was almost sold out.