Sunday Notes: Have we seen the end of empty CHL buildings?

Jonathan Roy/QMJHL

Thursday's opening game of the 2021 President Cup final was intriguing for a couple reasons.

For starters, the Victoriaville Tigres did something no team has done since March 4 - hand the Val-d'Or Foreurs a loss. Benjamin Tardif's second goal of the game at 19:04 of the third period gave the underdog Tigres a 3-1 lead at the time and they hung on for a 3-2 victory.

Secondly, the game was played without fans once again. All games in Quebec this season have been played in empty arenas with the province riding the COVID-19 rollercoaster for the past year. But that all changed on Saturday with 1,816 fans in attendance (the capacity is apparently 2,000). Fans will be allowed into Quebec City's Videotron Centre for the remainder of the championship series, a nice reward for what's been a challenging season for everyone.

Here's hoping that last Thursday's game was the last CHL contest ever played without fans in attendance.

Some news and notes:

• The Foreurs evened up the President Cup final with a 4-1 victory in Game 2 on Saturday. Former Sea Dogs forward Maxim Cajkovic was the game's first star with two goals and an assist. Game 3 takes place Sunday.
• In the regular season and playoffs combined, Cajkovic has five game-winning goals.
• Ostap Safin and the Bakersfield Condors won the AHL's Pacific Division playoff, upsetting Tomas Jurco and the top-seeded Henderson Silver Knights. Safin had one assist in Bakersfield's 3-2 victory on Saturday to clinch the title. This was the final AHL contest of the season.
• Jonathan Huberdeau led the Florida Panthers in playoff goals (two), assists (eight) and points (10) in their six-game playoff series loss to Mathieu Joseph and the Tampa Bay Lightning.
• Remember the Memorial Cup? It was this tournament the CHL hosted at the end of every season to crown a national champion. As Pat McNeil noted on Twitter, it's now been over two years since a Memorial Cup game has been played. The 2022 edition is scheduled for June 2-12.
• Friday was the 20th anniversary of the Saint John Flames' Calder Cup victory. The only cities that had AHL teams in 2001 and still do today: Rochester, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Syracuse, Hershey, Hartford, Providence and Springfield. Wild how the AHL map has shifted.