L/A Nordiques goalie Jason St. Pierre, who is from Jay, loads up his gear bag into a horse trailer that transported all the of Nordiques’ gear to Logan Airport in Boston on Tuesday afternoon. The group was seen off by fans at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee in Lewiston. Sun Journal photo by Andree Kehn
LEWISTON — Having attained redemption, the L/A Nordiques departed for the Fraser Cup on Tuesday.
With the NA3HL Coastal Division captured with the sweep of the Northeast Generals, the L/A Nordiques open the Fraser Cup Championship on Wednesday in Woodridge, Illinois. The tournament pits the six division champions from across the country to determine the league champion.
The players who were on last year’s team that lost to the New England Stars in the Coastal Division finals feel there’s unfinished business to attain.
“To finally get over (the hump) was huge,” L/A Nordiques forward Armand O’Keefe said. “It’s all the work we have been doing all season, we stuck to the plan, it finally paid off. It was huge, it was a relief.”
The Nordiques open the tournament with pool play as the No. 1 overall seed. They will be in Pool A of the two pools and will face the Helana Bighorns, the No. 4 seed, on Wednesday and the North Iowa Bulls, the No. 6 seed, on Thursday. Both games will be at 5 p.m. (EST). L/A will have Friday off while the Bulls and Bighorns face each other.
“I feel pretty confident in our game right now,” L/A Nordiques coach Cam Robichaud said. “Helana, I think we have a pretty good chance. We kind of watched their play and we’ve talked to our team about what needs to be done to counter their forecheck, how they play with their team structure. The Bulls, we are a little familiar with their team as we played them last year in Baine (Minnesota, at the NA3HL Showcase).
“I know their coach, we coached with each other at the all-star event last year, they are a very structured team that has had a lot of success over the years. They have probably five, six guys tendered in the NAHL (for next year) on their current roster.”
The Bighorns finished the regular season first in the Frontier Division and with a 37-7-2 record and defeated the Missoula Bruins in the first round of the playoffs and the Great Falls Americans in the division finals. Both series went three games.
The Bulls were second in the West Division this season with a 32-12-3 record. In the playoffs, they defeated the Rochester Grizzlies in the first round in three games and Alexandria Blizzard in the division finals in a sweep.
Valeri Rykov of the L/A Nordiques controls the puck against the Northeast Generals in Lewiston last week. Sun Journal photo by Daryn Slover
In Pool B, the Binghamton Junior Senators (41-6-0, Northeast Division) are the No. 2 seed, the Texas Brahmas (38-4-5, South Division) are the No. 3 seed and the St. Louis Jr. Blues (35-9-3, Central Division) are No. 5.
Two teams from each pool advance to Saturday’s semifinals. The Pool A first-place team will play the Pool B runner-up, while the Pool B first-place team will take on the Pool A runner-up. Game times are 4 p.m. and 7 p.m.
The semifinal winners meet on Sunday at 2 p.m to crown the NA3HL champion.
Robichaud said he likes the schedule for the Nordiques as they get the pool games done on the first two days of the tournament and then have Friday to rest if they clinch a semifinal berth.
The L/A players say they learned something when the team went out to Blaine, Minnesota, for this year’s NA3HL showcase, where they faced some of the league’s best from other divisions, including the Blues.
“You can’t expect to be the best, you can’t be complacent, you always have to realize there’s better teams out there,” O’Keefe said. “That’s what we learned in Minnesota.”
While they went 1-2 at the December showcase, Robichaud liked how the Nordiques played.
The team that went to Minnesota is slightly different than the one that’s traveling to Woodridge. Robichaud brought in forwards Valeri Rykov, Alex Rivet (who leads the team in goals this postseason with seven) and goalie Andrew Ghimpeteanu, who has Fraser Cup experience as a member of the Stars organization last season.
“We have had additions with Rykov and Rivet, finding line chemistry with those two guys,” Robichaud said. “We have better depth and overall team speed than in December in Blaine. I think the team has improved.”
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