THE TIGRES ARE COMING TO TOWN

The Victoriaville Tigres will be playing Saint John in their 2010 Presidents Cup Semi-Final Playoff series. The best-of-seven matchup begins this Friday at Harbour Station at 7:30 pm. Game two is Sunday at 4:00 pm.

The Tigres advanced after sweeping Patrick Roy and the Quebec Remparts out of the quarter-finals. Before that, the Tigres defeated Marc-Antoine Gelinas and the Shawinigan Cataractes in six games.

The Sea Dogs went 1-1 against the Tigres in the regular season. The Dogs' 5-2 loss at Harbour Station in September was the Dogs’ first loss of the year.

According to the Tigres’ official website, this is Victoriaville’s fourth trip to the semi-final in the last 24 years. Saint John advances to the final four for the second time in five years.

Victoriaville officially became Saint John’s dance partner after the Drummondville Voltigeurs downed the Rimouski Oceanic 6-1 last night to win the series 4-1. Chris DiDomenico had an assist.

In the other semi-final, the Moncton Wildcats will have to wait to book their ticket to the semi-final. Moncton blew a three goal lead last night and fell 5-4 in double overtime against the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies. The winner of that series will play Drummondville.

Moncton’s game finished well past midnight after the start time was pushed all the way back to 9:20 pm because of the Atlantic Heavy Equipment Show.

"We're all very pleased with the turnaround in converting the building," said Ian Fowler, the City of Moncton's general manager of recreation, parks and culture to the Times and Transcript.

"The building has been converted before after trade shows and consumer shows, but never after a show of this magnitude. This heavy equipment show is the largest show that the building hosts. It utilizes about 30 per cent of the parking lot, all agrenas, the Coliseum ice surface, the upper mezzanine and lower mezzanine.''

Master Promotions, a Saint John company, was responsible for the trade show. Several folks told us on Twitter that the game was delayed further due to holes in the ice where the equipment was moved out.

Harbour Station sent us this on Twitter:

@station_nation right I remember hearing about that happening now... cost of doing business. Master Promotions is a big client for us too.

Game two of Saint John’s semi-final series had to be moved to Sunday because of the Exploratorium Interactive Kids Fair.

"Sundays have always been good for attracting younger kids and younger families," Wayne Long said to the Telegraph-Journal. "We'll make the best of it Sunday and hopefully attract a lot of families."

Here is a look at Harbour Station’s schedule this week:

Wednesday: Lord of the Dance
Thursday: LMFAO
Friday: Game One
Saturday: Exploratorium
Sunday: Game Two

"It's a great problem to have," Long said to the CBC about the finding ice time.

"We're all playing late into April, which is very positive for (both Saint John and Moncton) franchises. Both buildings book other events, and we certainly respect that and understand that that's the nature of the business."

The CBC is already looking ahead to a Moncton-Saint John final. But Moncton general manager Bill Schurman said not so fast.

"You're not supposed to look ahead, it's against tradition to look ahead. But you can't help but look ahead because I mean Saint John's a natural rival," Schurman said

"If that's the case then the two winners of the semi-finals go against each other and it is a chance to have an all New Brunswick final which would be terrific."

Station Nation will tee up both semi-final series this week.