Rouyn-Noranda vs Olympiques, Game 1: Just as I predicted.

In all the fuss over the IIHF, I almost forgot about the QMJHL finals. I am lying, I could never forget about the QMJHL finals especially since I saw half of my returning team last night at the Metro Centre watching IIHF hockey when I was hoping to see them in Rouyn Noranda actually playing hockey. Well no, actually I was hoping to see Saint John in Halifax, but that was hoping for a lot.

The Rouyn-Noranda Huskies faced off against the Gatineau Olympiques at the Arena Dave Keon. The Huskies lost 6-2 on home ice. Photos are available through the Huskies official photographer - Michel Fortin's site.

I mean geeze Huskies, at least we lost in OT on home ice. You are going to have to do better than that. Unfortunately they cannot, Gatineau have some big snipers, and despite all the fuss about how well 'the Gouge' has been for the Huskies in these playoffs, he was not really that good against Saint John and I don't expect much more from him facing the Olympiques.

Captain Jean-Philip Chabot had a hat trick and Squirrels Giroux netted one goal and had three helpers. Paul Byron and Gerrit Fauser rounded out Gatineau's scorers. Pistilli, Prokop, and Labrie helped out with a number of assists. Hubert Labrie also has a quick hits interview that you can read on the QMJHL sight right now.

Claude Giroux is a rabid squirrel, nibbling and clawing his way to the top of the Q with 41 points, 15 points more than his nearest competitor. This is why Philly fans should rejoice.

Tyler Hawes and Yannick Riendeau scored for the Huskies. The Huskies PK did not look so good as they allowed the Olympiques to get 4 goals on 6 powerplay attempts. They are either going to have to get back to shutting down the opposing team's power play or smartening up and not taking so many penalties (not likely). If their pride is the offensiveness of their defense and not the defensiveness of their defense...the Huskies are screwed. However, I was looking over the game photos and it does look like they were smart enough to hurt Byron. The Piques are wee tiny things and should be easy to break. Was Groulx being literal when he leaked that his team have a weakness.

Gougeon allowed 5 goals on 34 shots (0.85 save %) whereas Mior allowed only 2 goals on 27 shots (0.926 save %). Mind you, Gougeon is not as easy to dislike with a full beard,when compared to his normal meticulously groomed cornucopia of hair-douchebaggery, but I will stick with Mior because he still looks as wonderfully psychotic as ever.

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Team USA cannot afford name plates on their jerseys, or matching gloves, or team USA helmets and pads for their goalie. That country is just Ghetto. This is war time people, America must conserve its resources. It was fun not having a game schedule and trying to guess the team USA players by face alone (many did not have their usual team numbers). Like I am going to recognize someone from the St Louis Blues - HA. Boyfriend was useless, he has no idea what Paul Martin looks like. Neither of us knew who David Backes was (sorry Backes). We still managed to recognize 3/4 of the team by face alone. Here is the USA roster.