A Saguenéens-Remparts elimination duel very different from last year


The two teams of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) will meet in a best-of-five series for the second consecutive spring. Last year, the Sags got the better of their 175 rivals in a second-round series.

This time, the task looks more complicated for Yanick Jean’s men, who finished eighth in the Eastern Association while the Remparts finished at the top of the general classification. This will be the seventh playoff game between Quebec and Chicoutimi.

Yanick Jean on the players' bench is masked and he crosses his arms.

Yanick Jean, coach of the Sags.

Photo: Radio-Canada / Rémi Tremblay

It’s a bit of a copy-paste from last year with the roles reversed. We had good training. They had a younger formation. We had a lot of pressure, we had to win and it seems like it’s the opposite this yearobserves the head coach of the Saguenéens in an interview with Radio-Canada.

In the cyclical reality of junior hockey, few teams perform year after year. After aspiring to top honors in the previous two campaigns, the Saguenéens began a youthful shift last summer, which explains why they’ve had less success this season.

one step at a time

In the regular season, the Sags won only one victory in eight games against the band of Patrick Roy. Jean is well aware that his club is far from being the favorite and it is for this reason that he will ask his proteges to take it one bite at a time.

We try to prepare by concentrating on us and not in relation to the team against whom we are going to play. We want to think about what we have to do because it doesn’t really help to look for weaknesses in the opponent when you play against a team that finished first in the general classificationanalyzes the Chicoutimi pilot.

We go focus on us and we’re going to go one presence at a time, one period at a time and one game at a time. You can’t see it as a mountain. You almost have to say to yourself that we are playing against ourselves. »

A quote from Yanick Jean, head coach of the Saguenéens

Despite the 44-point gap between the two clubs in the standings, his counterpart at the Remparts, Patrick Roy, believes that the Saguenéens will offer stiff opposition throughout the series.

Tribute to veterans

Yanick Jean made a point of recalling that several people saw the Saguenéens out of the playoff portrait after their holiday trades, where they notably parted with forward Félix Lafrance, one of the best players in the QMJHL. He highlighted the contribution of his 20-year-old veterans Michaël Pelletier, William Rouleau and Christopher Inniss.

Players follow the puck on an ice.

In the last game at the Georges-Vézina center on April 19, the Remparts won 6-1 against the Saguenéens.

Photo: Courtesy of the QMJHL, André Émond

Our three 20-year-olds brought us there. They had an incredible impact on our chamber, all the leadership, it’s Pellerin, it’s Inniss, it’s Rouleau who were able to bring the others with them […] we feel privileged to be there and we feel that we have taken steps forward with our teammentioned John.

The defender of the Remparts, Louis Crevier, will live a special moment during the series since he will face the formation with which he played his first three seasons in the QMJHL.

The series will move to the Georges-Vézina center on Monday for the third game. If necessary, game number four will be presented on Tuesday, also in Chicoutimi.



Reference-ici.radio-canada.ca

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