Recap: Regiment Take Down Armada In Front Of Sparse Crowd

There were just two games on Wednesday as the fourth weekend of the QMJHL campaign kicked off, but the biggest story of the night revolved around the empty seats at the Centre Excellence Sports Rousseau.

The Blainville-Boisbriand Armada are in a rebuilding year, and the people in the region are not flocking out to the games this season. In a midweek home game for a struggling team against a non-rival opponent... the arena just was not full. Only 954 spectators came out, a number that is simply too small.

There is data to show that CHL teams in and around major metropolis areas tend to struggle for attendance, particularly when the on-ice product is subpar. The OHL has struggled for years to keep a team in and around the Toronto area, and the WHL's Vancouver Giants are typically in the bottom third of league attendance, too.

The question is, why? One theory is just that there's more to do in these big cities, and a junior hockey game doesn't have the same draw as it would in a smaller city, where their junior team holds the title of the biggest in the city.

When you're in Montreal, Toronto or Vancouver, there are endless other entertainment options, and watching a losing junior team that might not even be in the top-five most relevant teams in the city is simply not one of those.

It's a tough spot to be in, but an attendance under 1,000 cannot be a repeated event for the Armada this season. Sure, a Wednesday night game could be a one-off, but the crowds in Boisbriand have never really been up there anyway.

Could there be ticketing initiatives that push student packages, or maybe some other way to try and get captivated audiences in the stands? Surely, the Blainville-Boisbriand ticketing department is on this, and hopefully this story doesn't have to have any more airtime in the future.

Anyway, there was also a game on the ice.

The first period didn't feature any goals, but the action really kicked off in the second period. Four Newfoundland goals from Alexis Michaud, Louis-Francois Belanger, Maddex Marmulak and William Lundqvist across 15 minutes put this game firmly in possession of the visitors, and it got feisty after the 4-0 marker. 

Logan Brennan caught Damian Norris with a high hit, and that really kicked things off from a physical department. Some fights went down, a few misconducts were handed out, and the teams eventually did make it back to the locker room for second intermission.

In the third, Tyson Goguen extended the lead to five, and while the Armada did get three goals back through Camden Jackson, Stefano Pietrantonio and Amelio Santini, a late Goguen empty-netter put the game to bed for good.

For Newfoundland, the victory puts them in a tie atop the East alongside Rimouski with a 5-1-1 record, though both Quebec and Moncton have better points percentage numbers in what looks to be a gauntlet of a conference.

Blainville-Boisbriand drops to 2-6-0, and continue in their rebuilding year after going all-in last season.

Shawinigan (3) - Victoriaville (5)

Player of the Night

Louis-Francois Belanger (NFLD): 1G, 2A

Drummondville at Moncton - 6 PM ET
Rouyn-Noranda at Halifax - 6 PM ET

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