Preview: Screaming Eagles to face Quebec Remparts in President Cup Playoffs

Preview: Screaming Eagles to face Quebec Remparts in President Cup Playoffs

By Jeremy Fraser
March 27, 2015

After finishing a 68-game regular season on Sunday, the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League's attention now shifts to the President Cup playoffs, beginning this weekend across the league.

The Cape Breton Screaming Eagles will kick off the opening round of the playoffs with a series against the Quebec Remparts, a team which will host this year's MasterCard Memorial Cup in May.

The series will mark the first meeting between the two teams in the playoffs since 2009, a series in which the Remparts won.

Everybody knows Quebec has the team to win the Memorial Cup, said Loïk Léveillé, Screaming Eagles defenceman.

"We're going to be ready. We are going to Quebec to win, nothing else."

The Screaming Eagles finished the regular season fifth in the Maritimes Division, 13th overall in the league standings, with record of 31 wins, 31 losses, three overtime losses and three shootout losses.

Meanwhile, the Remparts wrapped up the regular season in second place in the East Division, fourth overall in the league standings, with a record of 40 wins, 25 losses, one overtime loss and two shootout losses.

Cape Breton and Quebec split their season series with Screaming Eagles defeating the Remparts 8-5 at Centre 200 on Dec. 13, before Quebec edged Cape Breton 6-5 in overtime at the Colisée Pepsi on Feb. 27.

There isn't one specific thing the Screaming Eagles have to do to have success against the Remparts, said Léveillé.

"We're going to play our game and work hard. We have a lot a speed, good offensive and defence."

Léveillé said the Remparts have a good skilled team with lots of players who can score.

"They have a lot of good veterans that are drafted in the NHL, but we don't care about this, we are going there to win this series and keep moving forward."

The Screaming Eagles head into the series led by Howie Centre's Kyle Farrell. The 20-year-old, who was named the team's MVP at the clubs awards banquet last week, recorded 42 goals and 46 assists for 88 points in 63 games. Rounding out the team's top three are Maxim Lazarev, 36 goals and 44 assists, and Evgeny Svechnikov, 32 goals and 46 assists.

Meanwhile, the Remparts are led by rookie Dmytro Timashov. The 18-year-old, who has dual citizenship in Sweden and the Ukraine, posted 19 goals and 71 assists for 90 points. Rounding out the clubs top three are Tampa Bay Lightning prospect Adam Erne, 41 goals and 45 assists, and Kurt Etchegary, 25 goals and 35 assists.

On the blue line, Cape Breton is led by Léveillé with 13 goals and 41 assists while Alexandre Gosselin has recorded eight goals and 33 assists in 71 games between Acadie-Bathurst and the Screaming Eagles. As of press time, there was no word on the status of Olivier LeBlanc for the series opener.

On defence for Quebec, the Remparts are led by Nikolas Brouillard with 17 goals and 40 assists in 61 games while New York Rangers prospect Ryan Graves followed with 15 goals and 24 assists in 50 games.

In goal, Cape Breton's duo consists of Miguel Sullivan and Alexandre Bélanger. Sullivan, who carried the team's workload for the most part of the second half of the season, posted a record of 19 wins, 12 losses, two overtime losses and one shootout loss, along with a goals-against-average of 3.11 and a save percentage of 0.897.

Meanwhile, Bélanger, who has playoff experience with Rouyn-Noranda, had a record of 18 wins, 13 losses and one shootout loss while posting a goals-against-average of 3.33 and a save perecentage of 0.881.

Between the pipes for Quebec, the Remparts have Montreal Canadiens prospect Zachary Fucale and draft eligible prospect Callum Booth. Fucale, who was traded to Quebec on Dec. 19 from Halifax, posted a record of 21 wins, 17 losses, one overtime loss and one shootout loss, along with a goals-against-average of 3.20 and a save percentage of 0.885. Fucale won a Memorial Cup with the Mooseheads in 2013.

Meanwhile, Booth, 17, had a record of 23 wins, 13 losses, one overtime loss and one shootout loss while posting a 3.05 goals-against-average and a save percentage of .900.

The Remparts have two former Screaming Eagle players on their roster. Zachery Moody was traded to Quebec in August of 2013, while Guillaume Gauthier was traded to the Remparts last August.

Moody is looking forward to facing his former team in the playoffs.

"I wanted to play them since I saw we had the chance. I look forward to heading back to Cape Breton."

Although the Remparts finished 15 points ahead of the Screaming Eagles in the regular season, Moody believes it's going to be an interesting series.

"It's going to be a tough series. We will be prepared for everything they have to throw at us."

Despite Quebec hosting this year's Memorial Cup, the team still wants to win the league's President Cup, said Moody.

"The Memorial Cup is the big goal, but we want to show everyone we didn't get there by luck."

The Screaming Eagles and Remparts open their best-of-seven series this weekend, starting tonight, Friday, and Saturday at the Colisée Pepsi, both 8 p.m. start times.

The series will shift to Cape Breton on Tuesday and Thursday, both games at 7 p.m., at Centre 200.

If necessary, game five of the series will be played April 3 in Sydney, while games six and seven would be played in Quebec City on April 6 and April 7.