Shawinigan Wins QMJHL’s Presidents Cup

Saturday night the Shawinigan Cataractes defeated the Charlottetown Islanders in overtime to win the Presidents Cup finals 4-3. For the fans of Charlottetown’s Eastlink Centre, it was the first time the top QMJHL trophy was awarded in the arena.

It also represented the end of a great series between two teams which fought extremely hard to win. The most common thing I heard about this series was that instead of it being 3-1 for Shawinigan, it easily could have been 3-1 for Charlottetown. These two teams fought extremely hard and for what I could watch, it was a treat. The Islanders had a great deep team however so did Shawinigan.

From the get-go, I knew this series was going to be a real treat. For the first time ever, the Islanders announced a tail gate party behind the Eastlink Centre. This was something I had not seen in other maritime QMJHL finals.

The first two games of the playoff finals, there was a good crowd at the tail gate party. On the third home game, there was a smaller crowd tho to be fair, I wasn’t outside closer to game time so it may have increased as time went on.

As the Islanders warmed up outside, inside the opposing players were going through their drills of warming up.

Soon, both teams would take to the ice for their on-ice warmup.

With both teams warmed up both on and off the ice, it was time for the Zamboni to redo the ice before the big game. The players go a short break before the big game. Onto the biggest game in the Charlottetown Islanders franchise.

After O’Canada was played, the officials were ready, the players were ready, it was go time for the game to begin.