Saint John Sea Dogs fans have some mixed feelings on this
Friday night.
On the one hand, there will not be a New Brunswick based
champion in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League this season. On the other
hand, the Moncton Wildcats had their season come to a stunning end.
The Wildcats, who finished sixth overall in the league in
the regular season, appeared poised for a solid playoff run after acquiring
Phillip Danault (who was suspended for tonight’s game) from the Victoriaville
Tigres at the deadline. Instead, they were upset in five games in the
first-round by the Tigres, a team that traded away their best player and
finished 11th overall. This is a significant upset.
Tigres goaltender Brandon Whitney was unreal in this series, finishing
with a 4-0-1 record to go along with a 1.87 GAA and 0.951 SV%. He made 31 saves
in tonight’s deciding Game 5. Philippe Maillet scored 32 seconds into overtime
to give Victoriaville the 3-2 win and 4-1 series win.
Moncton’s Dmitrij Jaskin, who had 99 points in the
regular season, finished the series with just one goal and two assists.
So now the big question is: will Danny Flynn be back with
the ‘Cats next season?
Elsewhere in the league tonight, the
Blainville-Boisbriand Armada minus Ryan Tesink defeated the Acadie-Bathurst
Titan 3-2 to win the series 4-1. Former Sea Dogs forward Aidan Kelly had a goal
and an assist for the Titan in the series.
Kevin Gagne and the Rimouski Oceanic kept their season
alive with a 2-1 win over the Gatineau Olympiques. The favoured Oceanic trail
the series 3-2.
Chicoutimi beat Quebec 3-2 and now trail the series 3-2,
Val-d’Or defeated PEI 3-1 and lead the series 3-2 entering Game 6 on Monday in
Charlottetown, and Rouyn-Noranda won their series in five games with a 6-4
victory over Drummondville tonight.
*Above image appeared in the Moncton Times & Transcript this week
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