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Sunday, April 9, 2023

Notebook: First round nearly completed

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs
The Moncton Wildcats can book a trip to the second round of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League playoffs with a win on Monday night against the Baie-Comeau Drakkar.

The Wildcats took a 3-2 series lead with a 3-2 overtime win on Friday in Baie-Comeau. It's been an extremely tight series with three of the five games requiring overtime.

The Wildcats/Drakkar series is the only first round matchup remaining. Gatineau, Rouyn-Noranda, Drummondville and Rimouski all earned trips to the second on Friday with Game 5 victories over Saint John, Shawinigan, Victoriaville and Chicoutimi, respectively.

There were a couple upsets in round one. The Tigres finished 25 points ahead of the Voltigeurs and most predicted Victoriaville to take the series. The Volts kept those receipts.
The Oceanic, meanwhile, technically upset the Sagueneens although they were seperated by just one point in the standings. Rimouski is quite familiar with first round upsets as the Saint John Sea Dogs found out last year.
In the Western Conference's second round, Sherbrooke will take on Drummondville and Gatineau will face Rouyn-Noranda. Quebec, Halifax and Rimouski have all advanced on the Eastern Conference side but are awaiting the outcome of the Wildcats/Drakkar series to see who they play.

FINAL NUMBERS
The Sea Dogs were outscored 30-5 in their five game first round playoff series against the Gatineau Olympiques.

Peter Reynolds finished with a team high three points (all assists). Nicolas Bilodeau, Brady Burns and Noah Reinhart each had a goal and an assist.

In net, Ventsislav Shingarov has recorded a league high 185 saves despite being pulled after 40 minutes twice in the series. Gatineau averaged 46 shots per game.

Gatineau's Zach Dean (six goals and seven assists) and Riley Kidney (two goals and nine assists) currently sit atop the playoff scoring leader board. Alexis Gendron has scored a league best eight goals.

DESPONT DEPARTS
It appears Sea Dogs defenseman Vincent Despont has confirmed that he won't be returning to Saint John. Despont has reportedly signed with the Swiss League's EHC Visp for next season.

"Thank you Saint John, my teammates, coaches, the whole organization, my billet and the whole community for making those two years unbelievable," Despont wrote on Instagram. "Really excited to start a new chapter!"

Despont, who would be an overager next season, appeared in 91 regular season games with Saint John over the past two seasons, recording three goals and 12 assists.

NUMBER SEVENS
In honour of the Sea Dogs selling $7 ticket for their 7 p.m. contest on April 7, the team shared some photos of former players who wore the No. 7.

Here's the full list of players who have worn the number (click to enlarge).
CROWDS
The Sea Dogs had a much better crowd for Game 5 of their first round playoff series. Games 3 and 4 were played in front of two of the smallest crowds in franchise history.

Heading into Friday's action, the Sea Dogs had a 48% drop in attendance compared to their regular season figures. The average attendance of 1,528 was the second smallest in the entire CHL, trailing only the Winnipeg Ice who play their home games in a barn on the University of Manitoba campus (not actually a barn but it's a small rink).
LEAFS EBUG
University of Toronto goaltender Jett Alexander was the emergency backup for the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday and even got to play the final couple minutes of the blowout win over the Montreal Canadiens. Chris Wideman was mad about the whole thing for some reason.

Alexander said he texted with former Sea Dogs goaltender Alex Bishop before the game. Bishop, who spent four years at UofT, has been the Leafs emergency backup in the past.
Oddly enough, Bishop played a few games with the St. Stephen-based Charlotte County Irishmen of the Southern Senior Hockey League this past season.

OTHER THINGS
  • The Sea Dogs were fined $500 ahead of Game 5 for a request for supplemental discipline that was rejected by the league.
  • At The Athletic, only one QMJHL player was listed on Scott Wheeler's early list of top 24 prospects for the 2024 NHL Draft: Chicoutimi's Maxim Masse. A few others were listed as names to know.
  • CBC Montreal has a story on the QMJHL's proposed fighting ban. The comment section is turned on if you are looking for some entertaining reading.
  • Shane Wright and the Windsor Spitfires were swept by the Kitchener Rangers in the opening round of the OHL playoffs. The Spitfires were the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference. They become the first No. 1 seed in OHL history to be swept by a No. 8 seed in the opening round.
  • The Rangers will face long-time rivals the London Knights in the next round, which should be fun.
  • Connor Bedard and the Regina Pats will face the Saskatoon Blades in Game 7 of their first round series on Monday night. That game will be played in Saskatoon. Bedard has 19 points in the series so far.
  • One of the best playoff series in the CHL has been Flint/Saginaw. The Michigan rivals will meet in Game 7 on Monday in Saginaw after the Firebirds took Game 6 in overtime. Exceptional player Michael Misa has seven points for Saginaw in this series.
  • Dartmouth native Jacob Quillan scored 10 seconds into overtime to win the Quinnipiac Bobcats their first NCAA men's hockey championship, defeating the Minnesota Golden Gophers 3-2. Along with Quillan (11th-round pick of Quebec in 2018), the Bobcats feature St. John's native Alex Power (8th-round pick of Charlottetown in 2018) and three Quebec-born players.
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