Q Round-up: Mikael Tam on fire for the Remparts

The Quebec Remparts witnessed one heck of a performance from their captain in their last three games.

Remparts defenceman Mikael Tam scored seven goals in three games, adding an assist for good measure.

Tam had two goals and an assist in Quebec’s 4-2 win over the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada last Sunday. He then scored twice more in the Remparts’ 5-3 victory over the Victoriaville Tigres on Friday. Tam topped off the week with a hat-trick in Quebec’s 9-1 rout over the Chicoutimi Sagueneens.

Six of Tam’s seven goals this week were scored on the man advantage.

The Remparts defenceman scored 19 goals last season, and now has a league-leading nine in six games so far this season.

***

The Chicoutimi Sagueneens made a pair of moves this week, acquiring forward Alexandre Beauregard from the Saint John Sea Dogs on September 21, and acquiring Cole MacMillan from the Moncton Wildcats the next day.

Beauregard was packaged with Chicoutimi’s 2^nd round pick in the 2012 QMJHL Entry Draft, previously acquired by the Sea Dogs. Chicoutimi sent their 1^st and 3^rd round picks in 2012 in return.

Beauregard. 20, had a goal in two games for the defending President’s Cup champions, who have had all their players return from NHL camps except for last year’s leading scorer Jonathan Huberdeau, which could have forced the move.

MacMillan, 20, was an odd player out of the overager spots for the Wildcats this season. He hadn’t played a game for the team this year. Moncton received a conditional 6^th round pick in 2012 in return.

Both Beauregard and MacMillan made their Chicoutimi debuts this weekend, playing in two games.

Last week, the P.E.I. Rocket sent defenceman Jean-Sebastien Fournier to the Drummondville Voltigeurs for a 6^th round pick in 2012. Fournier, 20, has an assist in four games so far with the Volts.

As well, the Rocket signed tough right winger Patrick McGrath. McGrath, 18, had 171 PIMs in 35 games last year in the United States. The Wilkes-Barre, PA native made his debut against the Val-d’Or Foreurs on Saturday, registering three hits and four PIMs in a 3-0 victory.

***

The TELUS East Division has the three best teams in the QMJHL through the first month of the season.

The Victoriaville Tigres, Shawinigan Cataractes and Baie-Comeau Drakkar each have 10 points to lead the league.

The Tigres and Drakkar are 5-1-0-0, and the Cataractes are 5-2-0-0.

Baie-Comeau has won their last three games to take their share of the lead.

The Tigres are in first place due to tiebreakers, having scored 34 goals for. Baie-Comeau is third, having scored only 27, but are tied for the league lead in goals against, giving up 15.

Victoriaville plays four times this week, on the road to play Baie-Comeau and Chicoutimi, then return home for a date with Saint John on Saturday. They finish the week by playing the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada Sunday.

Shawinigan plays Moncton at home on Thursday, and Acadie-Bathurst on Friday. They travel to Quebec to play the Remparts Sunday.

The Drakkar have a three-game homestand this week, playing the Tigres Tuesday, then P.E.I. Saturday and Bathurst Sunday.

***

The Acadie-Bathurst Titan and the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada have dropped back to Earth.

Bathurst has lost their last five games, going 0-4-1-0 in that stretch, while the Armada have lost their last four games.

The Titan play three games in three nights on the road next weekend, taking on the Cataractes Friday, the Sagueneens Saturday and the Drakkar Sunday, in what could be the toughest schedule of the week.

The Armada have three games at home this week. They play the Sea Dogs Wednesday at home, then the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies in Boisbriand on Friday and the Victoriaville Tigres on Sunday.

***

Two more teams debuted new uniforms this season.

The Gatineau Olympiques cut the colour out of their uniforms, dumping their orange and white jersey set and going with a white, black and silver set.

Their new jerseys mirror the new Los Angeles Kings jerseys. The black jersey is a carbon copy. The white jersey has the black and silver stripes reversed.

As well, the Val-d’Or Foreurs received new duds this season. These jerseys are similar to the jerseys they used to wear in the early 2000s, with green, gold, black and white featuring prominently again.

Their dark set is now predominantly green instead of black, with three stripes on the sleeves and hem, in order of black-white-gold. As well, there are gold under-arms. On the white jersey set, the stripes down the sleeves and hem are black-gold-green, and green under-arms. The socks match the sleeve stripes.

***

The TELUS West Division is competitive to start the season, with all five teams separated by a point.

The Rouyn-Noranda Huskies and the Val-d’Or Foreurs are tops in the division with seven points, followed by the Drummondville Voltigeurs, the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada and the Gatineau Olympiques with six.

The Foreurs have played eight games and the Voltigeurs have played six. The other teams have played seven.

***

Zach O’Brien of the Acadie-Bathurst Titan continues to lead the QMJHL in scoring, with 19 points in seven games. He is followed by Victoriaville’s Yanni Gourde, with 18 points.

Matthew Bissonnette of Bathurst has 16 points to sit in third place in scoring. The top five is rounded out by the Tigres’ Philippe Maillet and the Titan’s Sebastien Trudeau with 14 points apiece.

Rounding out the top ten are Alex Saulnier of the Moncton Wildcats with 13 points, defenseman Mikael Tam of the Quebec Remparts, Marc-Olivier Brouillard of the Drummondville Voltigeurs and Ben Duffy of the P.E.I. Rocket with 12 points, and Alex’s twin brother Allain Saulnier, also of the Wildcats and Alexandre Comtois of the Quebec Remparts are tied for tenth place with 11 points.

Tam leads the league in goals with nine from the blue line. As mentioned earlier, the Remparts captain had seven goals and eight points in his last three games to take the lead. Brouillard, O’Brien and Shawinigan’s Anton Zlobin are one behind Tam with eight.

Tam’s teammate Martin Lefebvre is second in defenseman scoring in the Q, with eight points in only four games. Moncton’s Pat Downe is one point behind him with seven.

Halifax’s Nathan MacKinnon still leads all rookies in points with ten, but the competition is catching up. Quebec’s Mikhail Grigorenko and Rouyn-Noranda’s Denis Kamaev each have nine, and P.E.I.’s Matej Beran and Rouyn-Noranda’s Sven Andrighetto each have eight.

Victoriaville rookie goalie Brandon Whitney continues to lead the QMJHL with five wins. Whitney, 17, is  in third place in the league in GAA with 2.16, and fourth in save percentage with .902.

Shawinigan’s Alex Dubeau is leading the QMJHL in GAA and save percentage, with a GAA of 2.00 and a save percentage of .932. Domenic Graham of the Drummondville Voltigeurs sits in second in both categories, with a 2.02 mark and a save percentage of .930.