GATINEAU VS SAINT JOHN IN FINAL

The Gatineau Olympiques are heading to the President’s Cup final.

The Olympiques defeated the Quebec Remparts 5-2 in Game Seven of their semifinal series against the Quebec Remparts on Tuesday night at Colisee Pepsi. The win propels Gatineau into the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League final where they will play the Saint John Sea Dogs.

Christian Ouellet and Philip-Michael Devos each had a pair of goals and Mitchell Porowski scored once for the winners. Maxime Clermont made 31 saves in net for the win.

Ouellet and Devos each scored in the opening frame to give the ‘Piques a 2-0 lead after 20 minutes. But the Remparts stormed back in the middle frame with goals from Mirko Hoefflin and Joel Champagne to send the two teams tied at 2-2 into the third period.

In the final frame, Ouellet and Porowski scored 55 seconds apart to give the visitors a commanding 4-2 lead. Devos added an empty netter with three seconds left in regulation.

Remparts goaltender Louis Domingue allowed two goals on just four shots before getting replaced by Jimmy Appleby 15 minutes into the contest. Appleby allowed two goals on 20 shots.

The loss will leave a sour taste in the mouth of the Remparts as they led the series 3-1 at one point and failed to clinch it on three occasions.

Gatineau, the No. 5 seed, made it to the QMJHL finals with a 4-1 series win over Rimouski in round one, a 4-2 win over Drummondville in round two, and, finally, their 4-3 win over Quebec in round three.

This will be Gatineau's first trip the President’s Cup final since they won it over the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies in 2008.

Saint John and Gatineau met in last year’s quarter-finals with the Sea Dogs sweeping away the Olympiques. In this year’s regular season, the Dogs won both contests.

The final begins Thursday night at 7:00 pm at Harbour Station and tickets are still available.

SEA DOGS' OPPONENT DECIDED TONIGHT

The Saint John Sea Dogs will find out who their opponent is for the President’s Cup final tonight.

The Gatineau Olympiques and Quebec Remparts battle this evening at Colisee Pepsi in Game Seven of the semifinal series. The winner will advance to the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League final. Game time is 8:00 pm.

The winner won’t have much time to rest or regroup with Game One of the final being held on Thursday at 7:00 pm at Harbour Station.

Gatineau has the momentum going into tonight’s deciding contest. The Remparts had a 3-1 series lead but the Olympiques battled back with 5-3 and 4-0 wins to force a Game Seven. It is the second straight series that Quebec has had a 3-1 series lead but still went into a winner-take-all finale.

The big question in Quebec City is who will start in goal for the Remparts? Louis Domingue was pulled in favour of Jimmy Appleby in Game Six. Le Journal de Quebec reports that Remparts head coach Patrick Roy will make his decision sometime this morning.

Quebec is the No. 3 seed and Gatineau is the No. 5 seed.

In the regular season, Saint John won both games against the Remparts and both contests against the Olympiques.

Both the Ontario Hockey League and Western Hockey League final are already set. In the OHL, the MasterCard Memorial Cup hosts Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors battle the Owen Sound Attack. Out west, the Kootenay Ice will face the Portland Winterhawks.

Photo Credit: L'Advantage

SEA DOGS NOTEBOOK

THE BIG TICKET
Tickets to Games One and Two of the President’s Cup final are still available – but they are going fast. The Harbour Station website lists ticket availability for both contests as “limited.”

News 88.9 delivered this tweet:

Under 1,400 tickets remain for Thursday's Game 1 of the QMJHL President's Cup Final. Roughly 1,500 available for Game 2 on Saturday.

Both games will begin at 7:00 pm according to the Harbour Station website.

DRAFT TRAILER
Unreal draft trailer from NHL Draft Video featuring several Sea Dogs players.



PLAYOFF UPADTE ON THE DOGS
Bruins 2011 Draft Watch had a solid rundown of several Sea Dogs that are expected to be selected in the upcoming NHL Entry Draft. Forwards Jonathan Huberdeau, Zack Phillips, Tomas Jurco, Ryan Tesink, and Scott Oke are featured along with defenseman Nathan Beaulieu.

On where Huberdeau will be selected:

Top-three pick in draft; too skilled, too productive, just too damn good to fall very far.

BOYCE SUPPORTS THE SEA DOGS
Toronto Maple Leaf and former University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds forward Darryl Boyce is a supporter of Sea Dogs captain Mike Thomas. He sent this message out on Twitter today:

THN DRAFT LIST
Also via Bruins 2011 Draft Watch, The Hockey News released their draft preview this week and ranked the top 100 prospects.

Four Sea Dogs made the top-30: Jonathan Huberdeau at No. 5, Zack Phillips at No. 9, Nathan Beaulieu at No. 18, and Tomas Jurco at No. 28.

Other Quebec Major Junior Hockey Leaguers on the list: Sean Couturier at No. 4 and Christopher Gibson at No. 29.

GAME SEVEN
The Gatineau Olympiques forced a Game Seven following a 4-0 Game Six win on Sunday. The Olympiques and Quebec Remparts battle tomorrow night at 8:00 pm at Pepsi Colisee with the winner advancing to the final.

Remparts head coach Patrick Roy is unsure of who he will start in goal tomorrow night. Both Louis Domingue and Jimmy Appleby saw action in Game Six.

"We're going to have to think about this, because Jimmy played so well," Roy said to Buzzing the Net. "Sometimes you got to go with some tough calls. We might have to evaluate this. Maybe we're going to have to go with Jimmy and we're going to have to talk about that."

OLYMPIQUES FORCE GAME SEVEN

The Gatineau Olympiques have forced a Game Seven.

Maxime Clermont made 21 saves in net as the Olympiques shutout the Quebec Remparts 4-0 in Game Six of their semifinal series on Sunday night at Robert Guertin Arena. The best-of-seven final is now tied at 3-3 heading into Tuesday’s Game Seven at Pepsi Colisee in Quebec City.

The Olympiques led 2-0 after one period and 4-0 after two.

In the opening frame, Philip-Michael Devos scored at 6:25 on a power play followed by Christian Ouellet at the 17:30 mark to make it 2-0 ‘Piques after 20 minutes. Shots in the first stanza were 11-6 Gatineau.

Things didn’t get much better for the Remparts in the second period. Nicolas Deslauriers made it a 3-0 game at 2:31 and then Ouellet scored his second of the night at 4:27 on a man advantage. Shots in the middle frame were 12-6 in favour of the home side.

Quebec would outshoot Gatineau in the third period, 9-5, but couldn’t find the scoreboard.

The Olympiques went 2/5 on the power play while the Remparts went 0/4.

The Remparts led this series 3-1 entering Game Five on Friday but have failed to advance on two occasions. They nearly blew a 3-1 series lead in their quarter-finals series against the Shawinigan Cataractes but managed to win Game Seven.

The winner of this series won’t have much time to rest for the President’s Cup final. The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League final begins Thursday night in Saint John. Game Seven of this series will be on Tuesday.

SEA DOGS NOTEBOOK

STYLIN’
Via Sea Dogs equipment manager David Kelly’s Twitter, the 2011 MasterCard Memorial Cup crests that will be on the team’s jerseys during the President’s Cup final.

TONIGHT’S THE NIGHT?
The Sea Dogs could know their opponent for the President’s Cup final this evening. The Quebec Remparts currently hold a 3-2 series lead over the Gatineau Olympiques entering Game Six this evening at the Robert Guertin Arena.

If the Olympiques win tonight, Game Seven will be Tuesday at Colisee Pepsi in Quebec City.

The finals begin Thursday night at Harbour Station.

THOMAS ON INSIDE THE Q
Sea Dogs captain Mike Thomas was a guest on the QMJHL radio program ‘Inside the Q’ this week. You can listen to it HERE.

Thomas, in his last QMJHL season would like to finish his career holding the President Cup and will tell us what were the differences between last year's Sea Dogs that went to the final compared to this year's squad.

Also on the program is D.J. Abisilah, the play-by-play man for the Lewiston MAINEiacs.

GETTING TO KNOW HUBERDEAU
Open Ice Hockey’s interview with Jonathan Huberdeau at the Top Prospects Game.

REPORT: Kirkpatrick out three weeks

It’s the news nobody wanted to hear regarding Michael Kirkpatrick’s injury.

Halifax Mooseheads play-by-play man John Moore tweeted this this morning:

Kirkpatrick was injured in Game Four of the Saint John Sea Dogs – Lewiston Maineiacs semifinal on Wednesday. He left the game and never returned.

The 20-year old has had a rough post-season. He missed games two, three and four of the Sea Dogs’ quarter-final series against the Victoriaville Tigres with a concussion. Then in Game One of the semifinals against Lewiston, Kirkpatrick tumbled head first into the boards and cut his nose quite badly.

Obviously, the loss of Kirkpatrick is huge. He can provide offense but is also a very good defensive forward. He is also one of the Sea Dogs’ best faceoff men.

The franchise’s all-time leading scorer has three goals and 10 assists in 10 playoff games this year. In 63 regular season games he had 31 goals and 51 helpers.

The President’s Cup final begins Thursday at Harbour Station. If the Sea Dogs advance to the Memorial Cup, their first game is Friday, May 20 against the Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors.