2025 QMJHL Playoffs | Cataractes vs. Phoenix Preview

It’ll be a race for round three up and down Autoroute 55 as the Shawinigan Cataractes take on the Sherbrooke Phoenix in their best-of-seven Quarter-Final showdown. It all gets underway on Friday night in Shawinigan.

The Cataractes, who rode a streak which saw them earn points in each of their final 13 games, kept running hot in a five-game series victory over the Val-d’Or Foreurs. Matvei Gridin, a 2024 Calgary Flames first-rounder, was the key offensive catalyst for the Cataractes throughout round one, while solid support was provided by Vince Elie, Cole Chandler, Yoan Loshing and Louis-Philippe Fontaine, among others. Veterans Isaac Ménard and Jordan Tourigny, holdovers from Shawinigan’s 2022 champion squad, anchored the defense while chipping in offensively at key moments. The same can be said for third-year rearguard Julien Lanthier, whose first career ‘Q’ playoff goal proved to be the winner in game two. Behind it all, Mathys Fernandez kept shining between the pipes for a Cataractes club that allowed two goals or less in each of their first-round wins and allowed just a single power play goal against. This is the first time since that 2022 title run that the Cataractes have reached the Quarter-Final.

The Phoenix, who had defeated the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada in the postseason each of the past three years, made it four in a row with a five-game series triumph. It also made the Phoenix the only ‘Q’ franchise to have earned a Quarter-Finals berth in each of the last four postseasons. Much like he had been during the regular season, Mavrick Lachance was a pace setter for the Phoenix while overager Hugo Primeau came up big in the clutch with the series-clinching overtime winner in game five. Rookies Thomas Rousseau and Robin Benoit played a critical role in sending Sherbrooke to round two while a pair of familiar faces on the blue line, Hugo Marcil and Jean-Félix Lapointe, were strong in all three zones. Sophomore blueliner Louis-Alex Tremblay continued to impress with his smooth two-way play. In net, Linards Feldbergs was a force, stopping 76 of 80 shots over the final two games of the series, both of which required overtime. The Phoenix last appeared in the Semi-Finals in 2023, when they were eliminated by the Halifax Mooseheads in six games.

In the seven-game regular season series between the two clubs, Sherbrooke won four times but there were certainly no blowouts. Five of those games were decided by two goals or less. This is the second time the two clubs have clashed in the postseason; the Cataractes won that first encounter in the opening round of the 2016 postseason, four games to one, on their way to a berth in that year’s Final.

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Team Comparison (Reg. Season):