The Acadie-Bathurst Titan were busy during the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s mid-season trade period, swinging 10 deals as they looked to bolster an already-strong lineup for a playoff run.
Almost all of the trades have worked out in the Titan’s favour, but none more than one saw Bathurst acquire goaltender and St. John’s native Evan Fitzpatrick.
The Titan have made it to the QMJHL final — they take on the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada in Game 1 of the best-of-seven series beginning tonight in Boisbriand, Que. — and it’s in large part because of the netminding of Fitzpatrick, just named the CHL goaltender of week for the second time this post-season.
The 20-year-old has a 12-2 record in playing every minute in these playoffs for Bathurst and is on a 10-game winning streak, including sweeps of the Sherbrooke Phoenix — Fitzpatrick’s former team — and the Victoriaville Tigres.
Fitzpatrick’s goals-against average of 1.99 is best among QMJHL goalies these playoffs and his save percentage of .927 is in the top 3.
The numbers represent a carry-over from Fitzpatrick’s regular season with Bathurst. After being acquired from the Phoenix for fellow goaltender Reilly Pickard in early January, Fitzpatrick went 17-4, with a 2.25 GAA and .915 save percentage.
It was a case of trade working out famously for both the team and player — Fitzpatrick had been having what would be described as a mediocre fourth QMJHL season in Sherbrooke, with a 9-13 record, 3.48 GAA and .874 save percentage.
It wasn’t turning into the sort of springboard a player would want in what was expected to be his last amateur season; a second-round draft pick of the St. Louis Blues in 2016 and already signed to an entry-level contract, Fitzpatrick is set to turn pro with the Blues this fall.
“I don’t have enough good things to say about Sherbrooke” Fitzpatrick said in an interview for a story on the league website (qmjhl.ca) earlier this season. “But the start of this year didn’t go how I wanted, so it was a mutual agreement to give me a fresh start somewhere else. I was lucky enough to get picked up by a contender.
“I came into Bathurst and went back to the basics and had fun with it.”
Having fun was easier because of the strength of the Titan defence corps, which includes Noah Dobson, seen as a top-10 pick in June’s NHL Entry Draft, and Dobson’s regular partner, St. John’s native Adam Holwell, named the Titan’s top defender at the end of the regular season.
“They play so hard in front me I can’t get over it,” said Fitzpatrick of the Bathurst blueliners. “They eliminate so much. They give the opposition one, maybe two options, and they bail me out so many times.”
There is a third Newfoundlander contributing to the Titan’s post-season run — two-way centre Jordan Maher of Gander has frequently joined Holwell as a member of Bathurst’s starting lineup in the playoffs.
Maher has 10 points (two goals, eight assists) in 14 playoff games, while Holwell had four goals and three assists.
However, the top scorer among Newfoundlanders in these QMJHL playoffs is rookie centre Brett Budgell of the Charlottetown Islanders , the St. John’s native who had 12 points (six goals, six assist) in 18 games before his team was bounced in a league semifinal against the Armada, who won Tuesday’s Game 7 by a 6-1 score.
Notes
There was a time when the Armada, owners of the best record in the QMJHL this season, were the St. John’s Fog Devils, who entered the Q as an expansion team in 2005. The Fog Devils were sold and moved to Verdun, Que., where they became the Montreal Juniors in 2008. Three years later, the team was sold again and relocated to Boisbriand, another Montreal suburb … There is a junior hockey player from Newfoundland who played for a New Brunswick team this season and who is already a champion. That’s forward Liam Leonard of Clarenville, who had 13 points in 17 playoff games as the Edmundston Blizzard took the Maritime Hockey League (junior A) title. Leonard actually played one QMJHL game for Acadie-Bathurst this season after the Titan acquired his rights from the Quebec Remparts … Another Newfoundlander who suited up for Acadie-Bathurst was defenceman Zach Bennett of Bay Roberts, another mid-season pickup. But Bennett, acquired in a trade with the Drummondville Voltigeurs, only dressed for two games with Bathurst and hasn’t skated in the playoffs …
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