QMJHL Semi-finals: Notes and Stats

April 22, 2011 - Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) News Release

Here are some interesting statistics and notes on teams and players still active in the 2011 playoffs.

M SERIES - Saint John (# 1 - 119 pts) vs. Lewiston (# 8 ¬" 84 pts)

SAINT JOHN

Saint John will play in the semi-finals, for the 3rd time in the last 4 years. The Sea Dogs, last spring ¬â¢s finalists against Moncton, hope to participate in another President Cup Final.

Gerard Gallant ¬â¢s QMJHL personal playoff record is impressive: Victories in 5 out of 6 series, a grand total of 22 wins in 30 games; a winning percentage of 0.733.

The Sea Dogs have not lost a road game in the 2011 Playoffs. They won 5 straight games against Cape Breton and Victoriaville.

In penalty kill situations, the Sea Dogs play an almost perfect game, by not allowing any goals 93.8% of the time (3 goals allowed / 48 attempts from the other team).

They only allowed 15 goals in their first 9 games in the playoffs.

Veteran Sea Dogs player Simon DesprÃ©s (SNB) will soon be among other great names in the Q. He will soon be ranked 51st for total number of career points by a defenseman. In fact, his next point will be his 32nd, a number previously attained only by Robert Picard, Billy Campbell, Herbert Hohenberger, Philippe Boucher and Drew Paris, during their junior major careers. Click here for all the details.

Jonathan Huberdeau has scored 10 times in these playoffs, leading the league in a tie with Jonathan Audy-Marchessault (QUE). But pay close attention to the Sea Dogs ¬â¢ #11! His shooting percentage is amazing at 35.7% (10 goals /28 shots). Huberdeau has earned at least one point in each of his first 9 games of the playoffs, and if you add his 9-point streak at the end of the regular season, he will, this Friday, try to obtain a point for a 19th consecutive game!

Stanislav Galiev has registered 3 game-winning goals in the 2011 post-season.

Jacob DeSerres (SNB) ¬" the veteran goaltender, with a 1.87 goals against average, will try to beat the league record in one playoff year. The record is 1.89 and was established by Pierre-Luc Therrien (Victoriaville, 1999). This will be DeSerres ¬â¢ first game against the MAINEiacs, due to the fact that FrÃ©dÃ©ric PichÃ© was the Dogs' goaltender for the first 2 games between the teams earlier this season.

LEWISTON

The Lewiston MAINEiacs have reached the semi-final round for the second time in their history. Their first time, they were on the road to wining the President Cup in the spring of 2007

During a home game on December 10th 2010 of the regular season, the Lewiston MAINEiacs beat the Sea Dogs with a score of 5-2. A week before they fell 6-2 in Saint John ¬â¢s.

In these playoffs, no less than 16 out of the 44 goals scored by Jean-FranÃÂ§ois Houle ¬â¢s team were scored on the power play.

Kirill Kabanov is a player to look out for. He has collected at least one point in each of his eight last games. His total of 16 points in 11 games is a direct consequence of his hard work and his 41 shots on net in this post-season.

Etienne Brodeur (12pts/11gp) has the club ¬â¢s best plus-minus rating at +10.

This Friday, Nicholas Champion (LEW) will become the 12th goalie to play a 40th playoff game in the league. His total to date is 37, while his overall record is 18 wins and 18 losses. Click here for more details.

The record for the most goals by a MAINEiacs ¬â¢ defenseman in the same playoff year is threatened by Olivier Dame-Malka who has 8. In 2007, Chad Denny, scored 10 for Lewiston, while the QMJHL ¬â¢s record belongs to FrÃ©dÃ©ric Bouchard (22 | Chicoutimi, 1997). Dame-Malka equalled the QMJHL ¬â¢s record only two weeks ago, with 4 goals in the second game of the series against Montreal.

N Series ¬" Quebec (#3 ¬" 100 pts) vs Gatineau (#5 ¬" 94 pts)

QUEBEC

This will be the 5th time since 1998 that the Quebec Remparts will be in the semi-finals.

The Remparts have an extraordinary offense, having this year scored 62 goals in 11 playoff games.

Their power play is devastating to their opponents, as is evidenced by their extraordinary percentage of 43.1% (25/58)

When Quebec scored the first goal of a game, which has happened 9 times out of 11 during the playoffs, they had 8 wins and only one loss. In the same category, their opponents, Gatineau, won 7 out of 7 when they took the lead early in the game.

Jonathan Audy Marchessault (QUE) is the leading scorer in the post-season, with 28 points in 11 games. To maintain his 2.55pts/match, he gave two performances of 5 points, and another of 4 points (during the 7th match against Shawinigan). Since the year 2000, only 4 other star scorers have been able to maintain a higher per game point average than Audy-Marchessault: Yannick Riendeau (2,74 | DRU, 2009, 52pts/19gm), Claude Giroux (2,68 | GAT, 2008, 51pts/19gp), Simon Gamache (2,71 | VDO, 2001, 57pts/21gp) et Brad Richards (3,08 | RIM, 2000, 37pts/12gp). The points per match record was set in 1984 and belongs to Mario Lemieux with the Laval Titan (3,71 | 52pts/14pj).

Defenseman, MikaÃÂ«l Tam recorded his 3rd 2-goal game in his QMJHL playoff career. He became the 15th blueliner in league history to achieve this feat in the 7th match in the Shawinigan-Quebec series. Patrice Brisebois holds the record with 5 games of 2 goals or more by a defenseman in the playoffs. This was during his junior apprenticeship from 1988 to 1991 with Laval and Drummondville. This spring, Tam posts a +/- rating of +9, which is the 3rd best performance by a defenseman in the league.

By combining Vincent Bernard ¬â¢s regular season goals (22) and playoff goals (6) we come to a total of 28; a new record for the Quebec Remparts. The previous mark was set by Michal Sersen (25 | 2005-06). MikaÃÂ«l Tam is 3rd, with 22 goals since the beginning of September.

Goalie Louis Domingue, allowed only 2 goals or less in 7 out of 11 starts in the 2011 playoffs. His goals against average is 2.36 and his saves percentage is .918. At this rate, he might break the team ¬â¢s record average of 2.55 held conjointly by CÃ©drick Desjardins (2006) and Charles Lavigne (2009)

On Friday, during the Gatineau-Quebec meeting, forwards FrÃ©dÃ©rick Roy and Jonathan Audy-Marchessault will attempt to get at least one point for a 12th consecutive match in the series. Both have a record of 2 winning goals.

Patrick Roy showed some interesting stats since his arrival with the Remparts in 2005-06: 8 series wins in 14 attempts, a total of 38 victories in 71 games behind the bench, for a .535 win percentage. Since he has taken helm of the team, he has led them to 3 semi-final rounds (2006, 2009 and 2011).

GATINEAU

It will only be the 2nd time that the Olympiques will cross paths with the Remparts in the post-season. In 2008, Benoit Groulx ¬â¢s team won the quarterfinal series between the 2 clubs by 4 games to 1. That year, Gatineau was en route towards the 7th President Cup in its history.

It is always difficult for visiting teams to win at the Robert-Guertin Centre. In the 2011 playoffs, the Olympiques won all their home games (6-0). Including the end of the regular season, their sequence of consecutive home game victories now stands at 10 ¬Â¦

The Olympiques have a winning tradition. They have been awarded the President Cup a total of 7 times since 1986, which is the league record. Next May 2nd, they will celebrate their 25th anniversary of their first victory under the tutelage of Pat Burns and aided by the exploits of Guy Rouleau and Luc Robitaille. Click here for more details.

Did you know that head coach BenoÃÂ®t Groulx (Gatineau) led the Olympiques to berths in 16 out of the last 19 playoff rounds since 2003' This helped him win the honour of hoisting the President Cup 3 times during that period (2003-2004-2008) ¬Â¦

Several head coaches, who have graduated to the NHL, learned their trade in the QMJHL with the Olympiques: Pat Burns, Alain Vigneault, Claude Julien ¬Â¦ Will Benoit Groulx be the next'

Another colossal task waits for the Olympiques defence among which defensemen Hubert Labrie (+14) and Nicolas Deslauriers (+11) who dominate all their matchups in the +/- column. These two 19-year-old players shone against Sean Couturier, Ondrej Palat and company in the quarterfinal round against Drummondville.

Goalie, Maxime Clermont (5-3), has won each of his last 6 games against Drummondville. In the first round against Rimouski, remember that Francois Lacerte was in nets for more minutes than Maxime Clermont.

Jean-Gabriel Pageau has made his mark in the playoffs with 19 points in 11 games, and on occasion his spectacular play has made one think of a certain Claude Giroux; one of the principle players in the Olympiques conquest of the 2008 President Cup. His last game against Drummondville was April 13th when he racked up 5 points in what was the 4th game of the playoff quarterfinals!

QMJHL

Last Tuesday for the last quarterfinal game between Shawinigan and Quebec, the quartet of officials assigned to the game were exceptionally experienced. In fact, between them, their was on the ice an accumulated experience of 582 refereed games. The referees were Eric Charron (129 matchs), Nicolas Dutil (115), aided by the line judges Serge Carpentier (220) and Sylvain Losier (118).

Since the start of the playoffs, an average of 3598 fans have attended the 59 games presented since the 24th of March.

Check out the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League Statistics

Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League Stories from April 22, 2011

MacAulay scores winner in 5-4 victory over Lewiston in semifinal Game 1 - Saint John Sea Dogs
Sea Dogs Come Back to Win Game One, 5-4 in Overtime - Lewiston MAINEiacs
QMJHL Semi-finals: Notes and Stats - QMJHL
Take 5 With Lewy's Legion - Road Report from Saint John - Lewiston MAINEiacs

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