Halifax hosts series finale
Wednesday November 18, 2015
By Josh Sweetland/CHL
The 2015 CHL Canada Russia Series will come to a close in Nova Scotia’s capital on Thursday night. Team QMJHL looks to settle a score with Russia in Halifax following Tuesday’s 3-2 Game 5 loss which marked Russia’s first win of the series.
Halifax is home to one of the QMJHL’s recent success stories, a Mooseheads franchise that hoisted both the President and Memorial Cups in 2013. The ‘Moose’ have produced a pair of the NHL’s brightest young stars in Nathan MacKinnon (Colorado Avalanche) and Jonathan Drouin (Tampa Bay Lightning) along with a Danish rookie just joining the NHL scene in fleet-footed winger Nikolaj Ehlers (Winnipeg Jets).
The 2013 season was a truly unforgettable one in Halifax as the Moosheads tied a QMJHL record with 58 regular season wins before defeating the Baie-Comeau Drakkar in the President Cup Finals, moving on to the MasterCard Memorial Cup in Saskatoon where they defeated the Portland Winterhawks in the championship.
The coach of that dynamic group remains on the bench in Halifax today and has taken the reins with Team QMJHL in the CHL Canada Russia Series. Dominique Ducharme will serve as an assistant coach with Canada’s National Junior Team in the 2016 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship in Helsinki, Finland next month.
“The Mooseheads fans and the hockey lovers of Halifax will be out to support us,” he said of the upcoming game with a smile. “It’s going to be great to see them out cheering us on. We need to bounce back and give them a good showing.”
Game 6 comes on the heels of a hard fought one goal loss in Rouyn-Noranda on Tuesday as the QMJHL outshot their opponents 33-20 to no avail.
“We saw a lot of good things,” Ducharme remarked. “We’ll be making some changes to our lineup. We want to see some more combinations.”
With some of the QMJHL’s top talent in Anthony Beauvillier (Shawinigan Cataractes), Anthony Richard (Val-d’Or Foreurs), Thomas Chabot (Saint John Sea Dogs) and several others all in one dressing room, Ducharme says the off-ice observations are just as interesting as evaluating the on-ice capabilities.
“Being in this role really allows us to get to know the players better,” he said. “Some of them we had (at Hockey Canada’s National Junior Team Development Camp) this summer, others we didn’t and it’s nice to have the chance to evaluate them as players and individuals off of the ice. They’re all good kids and it’s good to see them from a different angle.”
Team QMJHL will feature one Mooseheads player suiting up in front of the Halifax fans in draft eligible winger Maxime Fortier who turns 18 next month. The second round pick by Halifax in 2013 has 12 goals, 15 assists and 27 points in 25 games this season.
“It’s always fun to have those opportunities to play with great players,” Fortier told the Halifax Chronicle Herald’s Willy Palov. “It’s a big opportunity and I’ve been looking forward to it.”
The series returns to Halifax for the first time since 2003 when Russia skated to their first ever victory in the CHL Canada Russia Series. Goaltender Konstantin Barulin made 51 saves in a 3-2 win.
Russia has taken seven of the last 11 meetings against the QMJHL dating back to 2010. They’ll enter Game 6 of the series down 12-3 in points looking to play spoiler in front of some of Canada’s top major junior hockey supporters in Halifax.
Catch all of Thursday’s action live on Sportsnet 360 and TVA Sports at 7:00pm ET.
