Blainville-Boisbriand has gotten healthy and is firmly back atop the QMJHL's Western conference.
February's first full week of QMJHL action opened with three games on Wednesday, seeing three of the top four teams in the West in action, including the scorching hot Armada.
Zoomed In: Blainville-Boisbriand (5) - Gatineau (1)
Armada players celebrate a goal in their 5-1 win over Gatineau Wednesday. (Photo: Dominic Charette)Around a month ago, the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada were struggling. Despite spending the entire season to date atop the Western conference, injuries, bad form and bad goaltending caught up to them, and they dropped to third in the conference after an OT loss to Rouyn-Noranda on January 8.
Since then, the Armada of old has come back. The trade acquisitions have settled in, Bill Zonnon has gotten up to speed and, most importantly, William Lacelle has finally given the group consistently strong goaltending.
While still not with a clean bill of health (Xavier Villeneuve, Spencer Gill and Jakub Milota are yet to return), the Armada are much closer to a full-strength version of the team that entered the 2025-26 season as Gilles-Courteau Trophy favourites.
The strong play continued Wednesday with a convincing 5-1 win over the rebuilding Gatineau Olympiques, who sit bottom of the West.
While Gatineau opened the scoring through Simon-Xavier Cyr 38 seconds into the game, Blainville-Boisbriand dominated the rest of the way. Jacob Beaulieu and Torkel Jennersjo each scored to five the visitors a 2-1 lead after the first.
The second was similarly all Armada, with Vincent Collard and Mateo Nobert potting goals, leaving the score at 4-1 heading into the third. There, star Blues prospect Justin Carbonneau potted his CHL-leading 39th goal of the year, sealing the victory.
Olivier Filaj and Mathieu Taillefer each recorded a pair of assists in the win, and Lacelle stopped 23 of 24 Gatineau shots.
Other Scores
Newfoundland (7) - Halifax (4)
Rouyn-Noranda (3) - Drummondville (1)
Player of the Night
Samuel Meloche (ROU) - 28 saves
Friday's Games
Halifax at Cape Breton - 6 PM EST
Moncton at Saint John - 6 PM EST
Newfoundland at Charlottetown - 6 PM EST
Chicoutimi at Blainville-Boisbriand - 7 PM EST
Baie-Comeau at Drummondville - 7 PM EST
Rouyn-Noranda at Quebec - 7 PM EST
Rimouski at Shawinigan - 7 PM EST
Val-d'Or at Gatineau - 7 PM EST
Victoriaville at Sherbrooke - 7 PM EST
Related
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