Quinn and Boucher to Coach Team Canada at WJC

On Thursday, Hockey Canada announced that Pat Quinn will coach Team Canada at the 2009 World Junior Hockey Championships in Ottawa, ON. Joining Quinn on the coaching staff are Drummondville Voltigeurs head coach Guy Bouchard, Mississauga St. Mike’s Majors head coach Dave Cameron, and Medicine Hat Tigers bench boss Willie Desjarding.

Quinn guided the Canadian U18 team to the gold medal at the 2008 World U18 Championship in Kazan, Russia where Boucher was also the assistant coach. He is also a part owner of the WHL’s Vancouver Giants and has been the head coach of the nine other Canadian teams at various IIHF events including the 2006 Spengler Cup, the 2002 and 2006 Winter Olympics where Canada won their first men’s hockey gold in 50 years, and the gold medal winning Canadian team at the 2004 World Cup of Hockey.

At the 1996 World Cup, he was the assistant GM, the GM in 1998 at the World Hockey Championships, co-GM at the 1997 Worlds and head coach at the 1986 Worlds. Quinn replaces former Gatineau Olympiques head coach Benoit Groulx who accepted the head coaching job with the AHL’s Rochester Americans.

Boucher has also been an assistant with the U18 Team at the 2007 Memorial of Ivan Hlinka summer tournament and the 2006 IIHF World U18 Championship. He is in his second season as the Voltigeurs’ bench boss. From 1997-2000, he was an assistant with the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies and from 2002-06 with the Rimouski Oceanic

Boucher is going into his second season as head coach of the QMJHL’s Drummondville Voltigeurs. He was an assistant coach with the Rimouski Oceanic from 2002-06 and Rouyn-Noranda Huskies from 1997-2000.

This is Cameron’s third time with Hockey Canada’s Program of Excellence and his first with the National Junior Team. Under Cameron’s guidance, Canada won the gold medal at the 2004 Junior World Cup. He was the assistant to Bob Lowes at the 2003 U18 World Junior Cup as Canada ended up in fourth place. He has been the St. Mike’s Majors head coach and GM for the past eight seasons.

Desjardins was Mike Johnston’s assistant with the national men’s team for the 1998-99 season. That year Team Canada finished fourth at the 1999 World Championships. The 2009 WJC will be his first time behind the bench for Hockey Canada’s Program of Excellence. He has been with Medicine Hat for the past five season and their GM since the 2005-06 campaign. With him behind the bench, the Tigers have won two WHL championships. Desjardins was named the CHL Coach of the Year in 2006.

Work begins immediately for the coaching staff with the selection camp to be held in Ottawa in early December.

Ontario to Host 10 Pre-World Championship Games

The host committee for the 2009 World Junior Championships announced on Tuesday that 10 pre-tournament games will be played in nine Ontario cities from December 19-23.

They are as follows:

Toronto (Air Canada Centre): Friday, Dec. 19: Canada vs. Sweden at 7 p.m.

Kingston (K-Rock Centre): Sunday, Dec. 21: Latvia vs. USA at 7 p.m.

Kitchener ( Kitchener Memorial Auditorium Complex): Sunday, Dec. 21: Czech Republic vs. Slovakia at 2 p.m.

Mississauga (Hershey Centre): Sunday, Dec. 21: Canada vs. Finland at 7 p.m.

Oshawa (General Motors Centre): Sunday, Dec. 21: Kazakhstan vs. Russia at 7 p.m.

Brockville (Brockville Memorial Centre): Monday, Dec. 22: Germany vs. Latvia at 7 p.m.

Barrie (Barrie Molson Centre): Tuesday, Dec. 23: Finland vs. Kazakhstan at 7 p.m.

Brampton (PowerAde Centre): Tuesday, Dec. 23: Czech Republic vs. Sweden at 7 p.m.

Hamilton (Copps Coliseum): Tuesday, Dec. 23: Canada vs. Slovakia at 7 p.m.

Kingston (K-Rock Centre):Tuesday, Dec. 23: Russia vs. USA at 7 p.m.

Bouchard Becomes Juniors’ Assistant

Former NHLer Joel Bouchard has joined the coaching staff of the Montreal Juniors as an assistant. Over the course of a 13 year career, the defenseman has played for the Calgary Flames (who drafted him in 1992), Nashville Predators, Dallas Stars, Phoenix Coyotes, New Jersey Devils, New York Rangers, Pittsburgh Penguins, and New York Islanders. During that period, he played 364 NHL regular season games scoring 22 goals, adding 53 assists, and 264 penalty minutes.

Bouchard is no stranger to the Verdun area as he played for the QMJHL’s Longueuil College-Francais in the 1990-91 season before they became the Verdun College-Francais where he played the remainder of his QMJHL career (1992-1993).

Since his retirement, Bouchard has been producer/host of RDS’s Académie de hockey McDonald’s TV show on RDS. The show features NHLers giving young players advice to improve their technical skills.

Trading Period Ends

The trading period came to a close on Tuesday with the Quebec Remparts sending rearguard Louis-Philippe Lacroix to the PEI Rocket for a 2009 QMJHL third round draft pick.

The Drummondville Voltigeurs sent defenseman Charles Vouligny to the Acadie-Bathurst Titan for their 2009 eighth round pick. Drummondville then acquired the Gatineau Olympiques’ 2009 sixth round pick in exchange for 17-year-old Mitchell Porowski.

Preseason Concludes

The final week of preseason games continued last Monday with a full slate as Maxime Macenauer, Jarrad Struthers, and Christophe Losier led the way with a goal and an assist each as Rouyn-Noranda got past the Val-d’Or Foreurs 7-5; Yanni Gourde’s two goals and one assist helped the Victoriaville Tigres skate past the Lewiston MAINEiacs 6-4; Christian Ouellet-Martel’s game-winner 8:09 into the third saw Gatineau edge the Montreal Juniors 3-2; Andrew Roski’s game-winner with 3:48 left in the second saw the Moncton Wildcats win the Battle of New Brunswick with a 4-3 win over Acadie-Bathurst; the Battle of Nova Scotia saw Halifax Moosehead center Ned O’Brien score twice in his team’s 5-2 win over the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles; Kelsey Tessier and David Gilbert scored once and added an assist each as the Quebec Remparts defeated the Rimouski Oceanic 4-1; Michael Kirkpatrick, Christopher DiDomenico, and Pascal Amyot added one goal each in the Saint John Sea Dogs’ 3-1 win over the PEI Rocket, the Baie-Comeau Drakkar doubled the Chicoutimi Sagueneens 4-2 with Gabriel Bourque scoring two goals; and Sean Couturier’s game-winner at the 12:28 mark of the third gave Drummondville a 6-5 victory over the Shawinigan Cataractes.

In the lone game on Tuesday night, Shawinigan captain Cedric Lalonde-McNicholl’s two goals helped the Cataractes to a 6-4 win over Chicoutimi.

On Wednesday night, Robert Mayer made 31 saves as Saint John blanked Moncton 3-0; while Vincent Couture’s two goals led Acadie-Bathurst to a 5-3 win over Rimouski.

Quebec’s Sebastien Trudeau was the lone scorer in the shootout as the Remparts edged Chicoutimi 3-2 on Thursday night.

Weekend play kicked off Friday night with seven games as Cape Breton doubled PEI 6-3 as Michael Stinziani and Chris Culligan added a goal and assist each; Matt Eagles scored the game-winner 7:48 into the second as Moncton edged Halifax 2-1; with two minutes left in the second Benjamin Breault’s game-winner gave Quebec a 3-1 win over Chicoutimi; Antoine Létourneau’s goal and assist help Baie-Comeau beat Rimouski 5-1; Mike Hoffman scored twice and added two more assists in Drummondville’s 7-2 thumping of Lewiston; Montreal finally won a preseason game with Benjamin Rubin scored twice as the Juniors skated past Gatineau 6-4; and Alex Tremblay scored twice in Shawinigan’s 5-3 win over Victoriaville.

There were seven games on Saturday. Keven Veilleux and Patrick Delisle-Houde’s goal and assist each factored in Rimouski’s 5-2 win over Baie-Comeau; two goals by David Labrecque gave Shawinigan a 5-3 win over Victoriaville; Lewiston doubled Drummondville 4-2 with newly acquired Maxime Gratchev and Billy Lacasse finding the back of the net twice each and assisting on two others each; Eagles scored two goals in Moncton’s 5-2 win over Halifax; Pier-Luc Giguère and Christophe Losier each beat Raffaele D'Orso in the shootout in Rouyn-Noranda`s 3-2 shootout win over Val-d'Or; and David Stich, Steven Anthony, and DiDomenico all scored in Saint John`s 3-1 defeat of Acadie-Bathurst with DiDomenico also adding an assist.

It was a light day of action on Sunday with only three games taking place. In PEI`s 4-1 win over Cape Breton,Ben Duffy led the way with two goals; Yoan Pinette and Paul Byron both beat Jean-Francoise Berube in a shootout as Gatineau got past Montreal 5-4; and Jordan Bernier`s two goals and one assist along with Cameron Critchlow`s two markers saw Acadie-Bathurst win the latest Battle of New Brunswick 8-4 over Saint John.

In Monday's lone game, five different shooters (Olivier Jannard, Drew Paris, Tomy Joly, Cameron Critchlow, and Vincent Couture) found the back of the net for the Titan as they defeated their New Brunswick rivals Moncton 5-3.

Victoriaville and Gatineau will kick off the 39th season of QMJHL play on Thursday, September 11th at the Centre Robert-Guertin in Gatineau, QC.

On Friday, the East Division match-ups has Acadie-Bathurst hosting Saint John, Halifax traveling to Cape Breton, and PEI making their way to Moncton. In the Telus in the all Quebec tilts, Montreal is in Quebec City to take on the Remparts, Chicoutimi hosts Drummondville, and Rimouski is in Rouyn-Noranda; while Lewiston travels to Baie-Comeau.

Five games on Saturday has Baie-Comeau hosting Drummondville, Lewiston traveling to Chicoutimi, Shawinigan at home to Val-d’Or, and Rimouski finishing up their visit to Rouyn-Noranda in the Telus. The lone East tilt has Saint John in Moncton.

The weekend finishes up on Sunday with Quebec hosting Victoriaville, Halifax making their way to Bathurst, NB to take on the Titan; Cape Breton hosting PEI; Gatineau at home to Val-d’Or; and Montreal traveling to Shawinigan.