Hi everyone,
We were all eager to know our opponent for the second round of the playoffs; we learned Tuesday that we'll face Victoriaville (beginning Friday). We tried to learn as much as possible about them in this quick turnaround.
It will be a tough best-of-7 battle. They are a good team, but so are we. It'll be an interesting series and we're all excited to get things going.
I think there is a good rivalry between the two teams from the past because Victoriaville is only 45 minutes away. Their fans will come to Drummondville and our fans will go to Victoriaville. It's going to be a loud crowd in both rinks. We're just going to have to ignore all that noise and focus on our plan and our goal.
Victoriaville relies on the top line in the QMJHL, comprised of Maxime Comtois (Anaheim Ducks), Vitalii Abramov (Columbus Blue Jackets) and Ivan Kosorenkov. We want to keep aware of those three guys because they have a lot of skills and they create a lot of offense. We have good defensive players, but whoever is on the ice with them will have to keep an eye out, pay attention and play them hard, and do a really good job defending against those guys.
The first round went well, as we eliminated the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles in five games. We did a good job of maintaining our energy throughout the series and we finished on top.
The second game was particularly difficult because we lost in the third overtime. It was the first time in my career that I played such a long game. Six periods make for a long game, and everyone was pretty tired. Our trainers were helping us out, giving us the food and drinks we needed to gain a little extra energy.
It's never fun to lose, especially in a game like that. But in the playoffs, you can't get too high or too low. You always want a quick turnaround. We wanted to forget about that game, and that's what we did.
We restarted at zero. We're a pretty good road team, and the guys were pretty fired up. Everything was kind of falling into place and things got better. The guys were getting more confident. The first two games of a series are always hard, especially with a younger group that doesn't have much playoff experience.
Our goal was to play well on the road and win at least two games in Cape Breton. We did a really good job and, ultimately, we won all three games there to take the series.
And before I sign off, a quick note about Halifax Mooseheads forward Filip Zadina, who won the Michael Bossy Trophy as the best professional prospect in the QMJHL.
I was also nominated for the award. But having faced Filip on a few occasions, I can tell you that he is a very good player who knows how to find the back of the net. Every time he's on the ice, he creates something and he's always dangerous.
He really deserves this trophy because he showed consistency all season long, and he's got a bright future ahead of him.
Enjoy the second round!
