1949/50 QAHL Regular Season

The Sherbrooke Miners were back on top of the regular-season standings this season after an infusion of youth brought the team back to their winning ways. After finishing 4th last year, Drummondville bounced back and finished 2nd and surprisingly wouldn’t face Montreal this year. Indeed, the team finishing third would be Shawinigan, who dealt with injuries almost all season and finished 5 points behind the Defenders. Taking 4th and the last place in the playoffs was the Quebec Explorers, who jump from 6th place to the playoffs this year, partly because the injury bug did not affect them much this year. After returning to the playoffs last year, Trois-Rivières finished in 5th place, a whopping 13 points behind the 4th-place Explorers. The story of the year was the complete collapse of Montreal. After winning it all last year, the Metros were hit hard by losing their captain Jacob King who was a somewhat big piece of their offence and finished in a distant last place. This would be the first time in league history that the defending champions wouldn’t defend their title. It also meant that Montreal and Drummondville would not face off after 3 consecutive first-round match-ups between the two teams.

Last edited by Kingsfan11 (6/15/2021 3:52 pm)

1950 Cartier Cup Finals
 
Game 1: QUE 3 @ DRU 2  The Quebec Explorers were looking to surprise the Defenders, and they accomplished that by scoring the first goal of the finals early in the 2nd period. Drummondville wouldn’t let that go unnoticed and replied with a goal of their own a few minutes later. 5 minutes after the equalizer, Quebec took back the lead, but Drummondville would tie it again early in the third. Quebec would reply with another goal a few minutes later to take back the lead. They would hold on to that lead and take a 1-0 series lead.

Game 2: QUE 3 @ DRU 2 (2OT) Drummondville would get at it early, scoring the game's first goal barely 20 seconds into the game, but Quebec would reply barely a minute later to tie it at 1 after barely 2 minutes of action. Midway through the period, the home team would lead off a well-placed shot that beat the Quebec goalie below the glove. Early in the third, Quebec would tie it at 2 again, and the tie would hold until the end of the regular season. The 1st period of overtime would go by without a single goal. 5 minutes into the second period of overtime, Quebec would score the game-winning goal and take a surprising 2-0 series lead

Game 3: DRU 2 @ QUE 1 (2OT) The first goal of the game would come to  Quebec late in the first period. 2 minutes later, Drummondville would tie the game and hoped to get the lead to keep themselves alive. Those would be the only goals in regular time, and for the 2nd consecutive game, we would go to overtime. For the 2nd consecutive game, the game would head to second overtime after both teams scored no goals in the first overtime period. Midway through the period, a Drummondville forward would find himself on the breakaway and score the game-winning goal to bring the series to 2-1.

Game 4: DRU 2 @ QUE 1 (OT) Early in the 3rd, Quebec would score their first goal of the game, but Drummondville would score the equalizer late in the period to send this game to overtime for the third game in a row. 6 minutes into overtime, the Defenders would score the game-winning goal to tie the series at 2.

Game 5: QUE 1 @ DRU 3  Early in the 1st period, the Defenders would give their home crowd hopes with a goal, but a few minutes later, Quebec would tie the game at 1 apiece. Late in the period, the Defenders would retake the lead. Drummondville would confirm their victory with a late goal to go up 3-2 in the series.

Game 6: DRU 4 @ QUE 1  The Quebec crowd would be ecstatic early when their team score within the first minutes, but a few minutes later, Drummondville would tie the game at 1. Almost midway through the 2nd period, the Defenders would take the lead with a magnificent goal and then add another one to go up by 2 goals. Midway through the third period, Drummondville would add another goal and bring their lead up to 4-1. That would be the game's last goal and the series as the Drummondville Defenders took home the victory and claimed their 2nd championship.



 

Last edited by Kingsfan11 (6/15/2021 3:48 pm)

Congrats Drummondville Defenders, 2 time Cartier Cup champions.

1951 QAHL Playoffs
 
Drummondville Defenders (1) vs Trois-Rivières Loggers (4)

The Loggers’ two quick goals within the first 3 minutes of Game 1 really astounded the home crowd who had just seen their team tear through the regular season. Drummondville would pull within 1 goal early in the second period, but a quick goal by the Loggers would push them back up by two. Halfway through the period, the Defenders would again pull back within one and then midway through the third, and they would tie it up and force overtime. A few minutes into overtime, the Loggers would have a great chance to end the game, but the Drummondville goaltender would stand tall and keep the teams tied. Late in the 2nd period of overtime, the Defenders would also have a few good chances, but their last opportunity rang off the post with a few seconds left in the period. Halfway through the 3rd period of OT, the Defenders would finally get the winning goal with a shot that would ring off the crossbar and into the net to seal their victory. The triple-overtime match that took place a few days prior had clearly drained both teams as neither team could manage to score a goal in the 60 minutes of regulation in Game 2 and would need overtime. After such an uneventful regulation, the supporters at Drummondville Arena were shocked when their team ended the overtime period barely 20 seconds in to take Game 2 and give themselves a 2-0 series lead. After the very uneventful game that happened 2 days prior, Game 3 got started really quickly, with the Loggers getting their first goal barely a minute into the game, but then the Defenders would tie it early in the 2nd period. Early in the third period, the Loggers would score and get the lead back and then add another one late. That score would hold, and the Loggers would take game 3 and bring the series to 2-1. Midway through the first period of Game 4, Drummondville would score the first goal of the game and then add another late in the period to take a 2-0 lead, then another one in the dying minutes of the period and then another goal with 4 seconds remaining. Either team would score no other goals, and Drummondville would take Game 4 and push the Loggers to the brink of elimination. Game 5 started with a bang, with the Loggers scoring the first goal literally a minute into the game and then added to their lead with a goal late in the period. Early in the 2nd period, they would add another goal to go up by 3 goals, but the Defenders would score a few minutes later to cut the lead to 2. Late in the period, Drummondville would score another goal to bring themselves back within 1 goal, but the Loggers would score to go up by 2 goals again. The Defenders didn’t want to go to a Game 6 and score another goal to bring the score to 4-3 early in the 3rd period, but their hopes of eliminating the Loggers were dashed when Trois-Rivières would score 2 goals late in the period to win Game 5 by a score of 6-3 and keep themselves alive. The Defenders were back at it early in Game 6 with 2 quick goals in the first 3 minutes of the game. Late in the 3rd period, the Loggers would score to keep their hopes alive, but those hopes would be dashed when the Defenders would score a goal a few minutes later to go up by 2. That would be the game's last goal and the series as Drummondville took Game 6 by a score of 3-1 and sent the Loggers home in 6 games.

Quebec Explorers (2) vs Montreal Metropolitans (3)

In Game 1, the Metros came out firing, scoring a goal in the first minute and another one a few minutes later. Montreal would add another goal into the 3rd period, but Quebec would score their first goal of the game minutes later. Montreal would reply with a goal a few minutes later to go back up by 3, and then with 5 minutes left, the Explorers would get another goal to reduce the Montreal lead to 2 yet again. They wouldn’t score again, and Montreal took game 1 by a score of 4-2. 5 minutes into Game 2, the Explorers would score the first goal of the game, but Montreal would tie it at 1 late in the 2nd period. Early in the 3rd period, Quebec would get their lead back with a well-placed shot that would beat Montreal’s goalie below the glove and would hold on to tie the series at 1 with a 2-1 victory. Early in the 1st period of Game 3, the Explorers would score the game's first goal, and the Metros would tie it up a few moments later. The Explorers would take their lead back midway through the period, but Montreal would tie it up again early in the 2nd period. A few minutes after their equalizer, Montreal would take the lead for the first time in the game and add another one a few minutes later. That would be the game's last goal as Montreal took Game 3 and took a 2-1 series lead. After 60 minutes of regulation in Game 4, neither team had scored a goal, and we would need overtime. 8 minutes into overtime, the Metros would score the only goal of the game and take a 3-1 series lead. Quebec would get us started late in the 1st period in Game 5, scoring the first goal with 9 minutes left in the period, but the Metros would tie the game up early in the second period. Montreal would then take the lead midway through the second period, then add another goal to go up by 2 goals late in the period. Late in the 3rd period, the Metros would add to their lead with another goal, but Quebec would cut the lead down to 2 a few minutes later. The Explorers would add another goal with a minute remaining, but it wouldn’t be enough and Montreal would take the game and send the Explorers home in 5 games. They would have to wait to see who they’d face in the finals. A few days later, they learned that they would face a familiar foe in Drummondville.

Last edited by Kingsfan11 (6/15/2021 3:46 pm)

I was hoping Drummondville could pull it out, but congrats to Montreal