ROUYN-NORANDA (3rd overall in the 2004-05 standings – 78 points – Western Div. CHAMPIONS)
VS
HALIFAX
(2nd overall in the 2004-05 standings – 96 points - Atlantic Div. CHAMPIONS)
During the 2004-05 regular season...
- Halifax held a record of 2-1-0-0 against Rouyn-Noranda.
- Halifax and Rouyn-Noranda each won a game at Halifax's Metro Centre.
- Halifax held a record of 1-0-0 at Rouyn-Noranda's aréna Dave Keon.
- GAME RESULTS :
2004/11/12 Rouyn-Noranda 3 @ HALIFAX 2
2004/11/28 HALIFAX 4 @ Rouyn-Noranda 3
2005/01/12 Rouyn-Noranda 2 @ HALIFAX 4
In the 2005 series...
- Halifax was awarded a bye for the 2nd round as the Atlantic Division Champions.
- Halifax won its quarter-final series against Gatineau 4 games to 1.
- Rouyn-Noranda was awarded a bye for the 2nd round as the Western Division Champions.
- Rouyn-Noranda won its quarter-final series against Moncton 4 games to 2
THE HALIFAX MOOSEHEADS
- The Halifax Mooseheads offered quite a performance since New Years Eve 2005, as demonstrated by their exceptional 24-6-4-0 record in 34 games, giving them a .765 game-winning percentage during this 2nd half of the regular season.
- This terrific performance during the last three month allowed them to take the top Atlantic Division rank from the Moncton Wildcats, who were so dominant in the first half of the season.
- After being awarded a bye for the 1st round series, they played the quarter finals against the Gatineau Olympiques, the President Cup Champions for the past two years (2004 and 2003). Al MacAdam's team won this 4 out of 7 series in 5 games.
- After letting the Olympiques tie things up 1-1 during the 2nd game of the series, the Mooseheads won two games in overtime at Gatineau's Colisée Robert-Guertin to take a 3 to 1 lead.
- The winning overtime goals were scored first by Rane Carnegie, in the 2nd overtime period during the 3rd game on April 12; the next day, in another 5-4 overtime win, it was 20-year-old veteran Daniel Sparre's turn to score the winning goal.
- Speaking of Carnegie, with 4 goals and 7 points since the beginning of the series, he is the leading scorer for his team, tied with François-Pierre Guénette (2 goals and 5 assists).
- Frédérik Cabana, who will miss the 1st game of the semi-final series due to a suspension, was also a dominating figure against the Olympiques, scoring no less than 4 goals in 4 games, including 3 during power plays.
- Speaking of special teams, the Mooseheads units are quite respectable: their power play (25.9%) combined with their excellent short-handed abilities (87.5%) amount to a global performance of 113.4%! A force to be reckoned with...
- Veteran centerman David Brine kept a 61.6% efficiency percentage since the beginning of the 2005 playoffs, the 2nd best performance in the league behind Guillaume Doucet of the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies (66.7%).
- The 2004-05 Mooseheads defensemen, whose leaders are Sharrow, Picard, MacAuley, and Beaulieu, made use of their experience during the regular season, leading the team to the Robert-Lebel Trophy, awarded to the team with the best goals against average (172 goals in 70 games).
- As for goaltender Jérémy Duchesne, since his acquisition from the Victoriaville Tigres in mid-season, he is the No. 1 goalkeeper for the Nova Scotia team. In the 2004-05 season, his goals against average was amazing (2.35), and he remained undefeated as a Moosehead during the regular season (12-0-2 record with a 1.50 average). He continued his great performance during his very first career playoff series in the QJMHL, keeping a 2.09 average (the best average among goaltenders currently involved in the playoffs) as well as a .922 save percentage.
THE ROUYN-NORANDA HUSKIES
- Led by André Tourigny, the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies won the Western Division Championship at their very last regular season game. With a total of 78 points, they nosed the Shawinigan Cataractes out (76 points).
- By eliminating the Moncton Wildcats last Monday night in the quarter finals, the Huskies reached the semi-finals for the 2nd only in their 9-year history in Rouyn-Noranda after moving from St-Hyacinthe before the 1996-97 season.
- Three Huskies players gathered over 80 points during the regular season: Brent Aubin (84), Philippe Dupuis (84), and Yannick Tifu (83).
- If their semi-final opponents have a reputation for playing a defensive style, the Huskies can count on a great offensive style, as demonstrated by the number of goals scored by its leading regular season scorers: Brent Aubin (41), Philippe Dupuis (34), Yannick Tifu (28), Guillaume Desbiens (27), Guillaume Doucet and captain Dominic Deblois (24 each).
- Philippe Dupuis, acquired from the Gatineau Olympiques during the off-season, isn't lacking motivation, he who is looking to win his 3rd consecutive President Cup, and this after winning the playoff title in 2003 and 2004 with the Outaouais team. In the entire QMJHL history, only 6 players got to touch the President Cup on 3 consecutive occasions during their junior years: Charles Constantin, Jean Landry, Jacques Jr Locas, and André Savard with the Québec Remparts in the 1970s, Pierre Lacroix with Québec and Trois-Rivières (twice), and defenseman Danny Groulx with three different teams (Val-d'Or, Acadie-Bathurst, and Victoriaville).
- Another acquisition from general manager and head coach André Tourigny this season was 19-year-old goaltender Sylvain Michaud. A 9th round choice of the New York Islanders in the 2004 NHL draft, Michaud, with a 2.93 goals against average during the quarter-final series against Moncton, finally got the better of Corey Crawford of the Wildcats, considered by many to be the best goaltender in the QMJHL.
- Against those same Wildcats, Dominic Deblois scored two winning goals, the last one in Moncton during the 6th game of the series, leading the Huskies to the ultimate series victory against Moncton, a 5-2 win. As for game no. 5, the Huskies showed character; as they were trailing 2-1 in the beginning of the 3rd period during each of these games, they came twice from behind to win 4-2 in Rouyn-Noranda last Friday, and 5-2 Monday at the Moncton Coliseum.
- Philippe Dupuis scored no less than 5 goals during this first series for the Huskies. Brent Aubin, along with Dupuis, is the other forward that contributed 6 points in the 2nd round.
- Rookie defenseman Lucas Longpré gave quite a performance in 5-on-5 plays, as shown by his impressive +8 rating for the 6 games against Moncton.
- In closing, it is worth mentioning that Rouyn-Noranda had difficulties during power plays against the Wildcats in the quarter finals, only scoring three times in 37 chances for a weak 8.1% rate. However, during the regular season, they ranked 3rd in this category with a 23.6% rate... The next series against the Mooseheads will tell us whether or not this was only a minor problem!
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