Gatineau’s Run to Memorial Cup Comes to End

The Gatineau Olympiques saw their Memorial Cup run officially come to an end Tuesday night with a 3-1 loss to the Belleville Bulls. Alexandre Quesnel netted the lone Gatineau goal. Mior made 40 saves in his final major junior hockey game. The Olympiques opened the tournament on Friday night with a 3-2 overtime loss to host and OHL Champions the Kitchener Rangers. Jason Azevedo netted the game-winner 6:59 into the extra frame, while Michael Stinziani and Paul Byron replied for Gatineau. Ryan Mior made 50 saves.

On Saturday, another game was decided in overtime as the Spokane Chiefs’ Levko Koper scored 4:46 into the overtime to beat Belleville 5-4. The Chiefs won 2-1 again on Sunday beating Kitchener to earn an automatic bye into Sunday’s final. Drayson Bowman netted the game-winner 5:24 into the third period.

Shawn Matthias scored twice on Monday as Belleville doubled Gatineau 6-3. Hugo Laporte, Claude Giroux, and Stinziani replied for Gatineau. Mior made 41 saves.
Bowman leads all scorers with five goals and two assists in three games played with his teammate Mitch Wahl is second as he has scored twice while assisting on four others. Stinziani (2G, 3A) rounds out the top three.

Spokane netminder Dustin Tokarski is the goalie leader with his 3-0-0-0 record, 1.95 GAA, and 0.938 SV%. Kitchener’s Josh Unice backstops his way into second place as he has a record of 1-1-0-0, a goals-against-average of 3.31 and a 0.877 SV%. Belleville’s Mike Murphy (1-0-1-0, 3.85 GAA, 0.908 SV%) finishes out the top three, while Mior (0-2-1-0, 4.49 GAA, 0.901 SV%) finishes last.

On Wednesday night, Belleville faces Kitchener, while the semifinal between Belleville and Kitchener will take place on Friday night with the winner facing Spokane on Sunday for the title.

Vincent to Coach Montreal Juniors

On Wednesday, Montreal Juniors President Martin Routhier announced that former Cape Breton Screaming Eagles head coach Pascal Vincent will be the team’s new coach and general manager next season. Vincent was with the Screaming Eagles since 1999 and has been the team’s head coach since the 2000-01 season winning more than 300 games along the way. He was recently the recipient of the Ron Lapointe Trophy as the QMJHL Coach of the Year. Vincent is a native of Laval, QC.

Paiement to Coach in Swiss League

Former St. John’s Fog Devils’ coach Real Paiement has signed to coach HC Ajoie in the Swiss National B League next season. He has coached in the QMJHL for 16 seasons and coached in a league record 1050 games.

Paiement began his coaching career in Granby (1986-90), Chicoutimi (1995-97), and Moncton (1997-2000), Acadie-Bathurst (2001-04) winning two regular season titles and reached the President’s Cup final three times. Ajoie’s top scorer last season was former Val-d’Or Foreurs member Stephane Roy, a third round draft pick of the St. Louis Blues in 1994.