Q Round-up: Titan on a major slide

The Acadie-Bathurst Titan are sliding fast.

Following their big 3-0-0-0 start to the season, the team has lost their next eight games, going 0-7-1-0 in that stretch.

The team has had the hottest line in the QMJHL this season, with scorers Zach O’Brien, Matthew Bissonnette and Sebastien Trudeau in the top six in scoring in the circuit. As well, the team has had defensemen Jeremie Blain and Garrett Clarke return from NHL camps.

Scoring hasn’t been an issue, but team defence has. The Titan have given up 48 goals this season, second-most in the league. Only Chicoutimi has given up more.

To make matters worse, the Titan have also played the most games so far in the league with 11.

The team lost their three-games-in-three-nights trip this week, and were soundly defeated in two of them.

The Titan dropped 7-2 to Memorial Cup hosts Shawinigan at Centre Bionest last Friday. They followed that up with a 3-2 loss to Chicoutimi on Saturday, and a 6-2 loss to surging Baie Comeau.

Bathurst will be at home this week, playing Victoriaville on Friday and P.E.I. on Sunday.

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Oceanic defenseman Jerome Gauthier-Leduc has been on fire since getting cut from the Buffalo Sabres.

Gauthier-Leduc, 19, was cut two weeks ago from the Sabres, admittedly a team that is relatively set on defence for this year.

Since rejoining his junior team, he has 11 points in four games for Rimouski, who sit in sixth spot in the league with a 5-4-0-0 record.

Gauthier-Leduc made his Rimouski debut this year Sept. 23 against Chicoutimi in an Oceanic 6-5 shootout victory. He had two goals and an assist, as well as scoring the shootout winner.

He added two assists in Rimouski’s 5-4 loss to Shawinigan Sept. 25. This week, he added two assists in a 7-2 win over the Moncton Wildcats and scored two goals with two assists in the Oceanic’s 6-1 win over Drummondville last Sunday.

Rimouski has a three-game-in-three-night swing in New Brunswick this week. They play the Titan on Friday, then have a date with the Saint John Sea Dogs on Saturday, and follow it up with a Sunday matinee with the Wildcats.

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Baie Comeau is the hottest team in the QMJHL.

The Drakkar have now won their last six games, and it atop the QMJHL with an 8-1-0-0 record.

The team has a sparkling goals-for-to-goals-against ratio, the best in the league, having scored 45 goals while only giving up 19.

Credit would have to go to the goalie tandem of Antonio Mastropietro and Jimmy Appleby, who are both robbing shooters, as well as the offense, led by Frederic Gamelin, Tomas Filippi, Raphael Bussieres and former Moosehead Carl Gelinas, included in the Nathan MacKinnon deal.

Baie Comeau beat Victoriaville last week 6-1, then beat P.E.I. 6-1 and Bathurst 6-2 on the weekend to round out the week at home.

This week, the Drakkar are on the road for their lone game on the schedule. Baie Comeau will take on the Quebec Remparts at Colisee Pepsi in Quebec on Saturday night.

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Speaking of Raphael Bussieres, he was named the QMJHL first star of the week.

He scored three goals and four assists throughout the three victories for the Drakkar. He has scored 13 points so far this season.

Rimouski’s Gauthier-Leduc was named second star for his six point performance in the Oceanic’s wins over Moncton and Drummondville.

Third star of the week was Chicoutimi’s young Charles Hudon, who amassed six points in three games for the Sagueneens. Hudon, 17, has 16 points in ten games so far this year.

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Victoriaville’s Yanni Gourde finally overtook Bathurst’s Zach O’Brien for the league’s scoring lead this week.

Gourde sits atop the scoring race with 25 points, and nine goals, in 10 games. O’Brien sits in second with 22. It’s worth noting that O’Brien’s team has lost their last eight games.

Matthew Bissonnette, O’Brien’s linemate, is third in scoring with 19 points, including nine goals. Gourde’s linemate Philippe Maillet is fourth with 17 points, one point up on the missing Titan linemate Sebastien Trudeau and on Chicoutimi’s young star, Charles Hudon.

Rounding out the top ten are a three-way-tie for seventh with a Wildcat and a pair of Drakkar. Alex Saulnier of the Wildcats is tied with Baie Comeau’s Carl Gelinas and Frederic Gamelin with 15 points apiece. Rounding out the top ten are Marc-Olivier Brouillard of the Drummondville Voltigeurs and Ben Duffy of the P.E.I. Rocket, each with 14 points.

Quebec Remparts captain Mikael Tam continued his hot play, leading the league in scoring for defensemen with 13 points, placing him twelfth in scoring overall. Jerome Gauthier-Leduc’s hot streak pushed him into second among defensemen, with his 11 points. Gabriel Bourret of the Chicoutimi Sagueneens and Tam’s teammate Martin Lefevbre of the Remparts are tied for third with 10 points.

The Cataractes Anton Zlobin took over the goal scoring lead this week with 11 goals to add to his one assist. The Russian goal scorer is one goal ahead of O’Brien for the league lead. Tam, Gourde, Bissonnette and Zlobin’s teammate Michael Bournival are all tied for third with nine goals.

Quebec’s Mikhail Grigorenko leads all Q rookies in scoring with thirteen points. The highly-touted Russian leads rookies in goals with six. He is followed by Denis Kamaev of the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies with twelve points, and the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada’s Christopher Clapperton with eleven. Halifax’s Nathan MacKinnon, last week’s rookie leader, went scoreless this week, and sits in fourth with ten.

Baie Comeau’s Jimmy Appleby leads the league in goals against average with a 1.25 mark, and in save percentage with .951 in four games.

Alex Dubeau of the Shawinigan Cataractes is second with a GAA of 2.09 in eight games. Dubeau also leads the league in wins with six, and is second in SV% with a mark of .929.

Four other goalies have save percentages above .900, the usual benchmark for save percentage for a goaltender: Mathieu Corbeil of the Saint John Sea Dogs (.910 in five games), Antonio Mastropietro, Appleby’s teammate with the Drakkar (.909 in five games), rookie Francois Brassard of the Remparts (.902 in six games), and Maxime Lagace of the P.E.I. Rocket (.900 in six games).

Three other goalies are sitting at five wins, one behind Dubeau for the league lead. Alexandre Veronneau of the Screaming Eagles, rookie Brandon Whitney of the Victoriaville Tigres and Roman Will of the Moncton Wildcats have all won five times so far this season.