Drakkar vs. Voltigeurs is a best-on-best
Nova Scotia's Woodworth in key role for Drummondville
Upsets and Cinderella runs always add intrigue in any postseason but it’s hard to beat a best-on-best championship.
The Baie-comeau Drakkar and Drummondville Voltigeurs were the two best teams in the QMJHL during the regular season and then steamrolled their way to the final. It sets up a true Goliath vs. Goliath series with a handful of extra angles to make it an even more compelling bestof-seven.
Here are the key facts to lay out how we get here.
REGULAR SEASON SUPREMACY
Both teams had strong first halves but then loaded up to produce a 1-2 finish in the overall standings.
The Drakkar placed first at 52-12-2-1 and the Voltigeurs were right behind at 48-145-1. To get there, the Drakkar acquired starting goalie Charles-edward Gravel, top defenceman Angus Booth and versatile winger Donovan Arsenault during the mid-season trade period to add to their already stacked homegrown core.
The Voltigeurs brought in overagers Alexis Gendron and Mikael Huchette, star defenceman Vsevolod Komarov and key role players Kassim Gaudet and Noah Reinhart.
Gendron returned from the American Hockey League to join the Voltigeurs for the run and Komarov, Huchette and Gaudet all won the Gilles Courteau Trophy and Memorial Cup last year with the Quebec Remparts.
Last-minute deals don’t always work out but it’s safe to say every move management made on both sides has paid dividends. The Drakkar went 12-1 on their way to the final and the Voltigeurs were 12-3.
EX-MOOSE COACH GETS CHANCE AT REDEMPTION
Speaking of the Remparts and last year’s championship, it came at the expense of the Halifax Mooseheads and Sylvain Favreau, their coach at the time.
Just five weeks after the final ended, Favreau resigned in Halifax and then joined the Voltigeurs a week later. He was an assistant coach for the Mooseheads for four years before spending two years as the head coach.
Favreau clearly pushed all the right buttons again with his new team, along with general manager Yanick Lemay and assistant GM Steve Ahern. Lemay was a key member of the scouting and management team for the
Cape Breton Eagles for many years before joining the Winnipeg Jets as an amateur scout for 12 years.
Ahern was the GM in Baiecomeau for a decade and his most memorable moment came back in 2011 when Nathan Mackinnon refused to report there after the Drakkar picked him first overall in the QMJHL draft.
Ahern eventually dealt Mackinnon to Halifax for two players and a pile of high picks. The teams wound up meeting in the league final in 2013, with Mackinnon leading the Mooseheads to the championship in five games. The Drakkar returned to the final the next year but came up short again.
Baie-comeau is still seeking its first QMJHL championship. Drummondville got one back in 2009.
MORE LOCAL CONTENT
There are only two others in the series with a connection to Nova Scotia.
Bridgewater’s Luke Woodworth is the Voltigeurs’ captain and is second in team playoff scoring with 16 points in 15 games. The 19-year-old centre also had 62 points in 62 games during the regular season. Drummondville drafted him 11th overall in 2020 and he has 220 points in 263 career games.
Former Cape Breton centre Peter Repcik put up 61 points for Drummondville during the regular season and has 14 points in 14 playoff games.
Notes: Key Drummondville defenceman Maveric Lamoureux hurt himself late in the regular season and is done for the year. The sixfoot-seven veteran is a firstround pick of the Arizona Coyotes and was an assistant captain for Canada at this year’s world junior championship . ... Neither team has ever won the Memorial Cup. This year’s tournament is in Saginaw, Michigan, May 24-June 2 . ... Baie-comeau’s Justin Poirier leads the league in playoff goals (17) and points (25). He also led the league with 51 goals during the regular season, making him the first Q 17-year-old to score 50 or more since Sidney Crosby in 2004-05 . ... Drummondville’s top scorer is Ethan Gauthier, who was a member of the Sherbrooke Phoenix team that was eliminated in the third round by the Mooseheads a year ago. His father Denis is a senior advisor for the Voltigeurs and played 554 games in the NHL . ... The series pits teams from two of the QMJHL’S smallest markets. The population in Drummondville is 68,000 and it’s just 21,500 in Baie-comeau. Bathurst is the smallest market at 12,000.