Nearly at the midway point in the regular season (most teams have played 26 or 27 games out of 70), there has yet to emerge a clear favorite in the QMJHL.

Gatineau, formerly Hull, has occupied the top spot in the weekly CHL rankings since the beginning of the season, and indeed are a force to be reckoned with at 21-6-2.

“They are one of the best teams in the league,” said Maineiacs coach Mario Durocher. “I would put them in the top four with Moncton, P.E.I and Cape Breton.

One team inching closer to Gatineu as the season progresses is P.E.I. After being urooted from Montreal in the offseason, the Rocket have won 10 of their last 11 games, the only loss coming on Sunday in overtime to Shawinigan.

Part of P.E.I’s resurgance has come because of the play of Ryan Mior in goal. Mior shut Lewiston out last week, and he also posted a second shutout on the weekend.

With five shutouts on the season, the P.E.I. Rocket are on their way to claiming the all-time league record of seven, currently held by several teams. All logic aside, Rimouski continues to be a force in the Eastern Division, despite coming up blank against Lewiston this season in three tries.

Just behind the Oceanic are the Drakkar of Baie-Comeau, who visit Lewiston on Thanksgiving day. Lewiston currently sits five points back of Baie-Comeau for second in the league.

The Western Division, after Gatineau, is Rouyn-Noranda at 18-9-0. The Huskies are one of six teams in the QMJHL with at least 100 goals scored.

Weekly honors

This week’s players of the week in the QMJHL are Ryan Mior of the P.E.I. Rocket and Josh Hennessy of the Quebec remparts.

Mior, in addition to shutting out Lewiston last Friday, Mior posted a 6-2 win over Victoriaville, putting his GAA for the weekend at an even 1.00, and his save percentage was .949.

Mior was the Rocket’s first overall pick in last June’s entry draft.Hennessy, meanwhile, had three goals and three assists in one game and played a key offensive role in the other to help Quebec to a 1-0-1 weekend. Against Rouyn-Noranda on Sunday, Hennessy had a hand in six of the Rempart’s seven goals to lead the team to a win over the Huskies.

QMJHL vs. Russia

After a tight 3-2 loss to the Russian select team last Thursday, the QMJHL had one more crack at it on Monday night.

Alexandre Picard of the Lewiston Maineiacs scored a goal and added two assists and Sidney Crosby, playing in front of his home crowd, notched three assists as the QMJHL All-Star team avenged last Thursday loss with a 6-3 win over the Russian select team.

Picard scored on his only shot on net and finished with three points and a plus-2 rating.

Maineiacs’ coach Mario Durocher was behind the bench for the QMJHL team.

Lewiston resumes normal practice Tuesday in preparation for Thursday’s game against Baie-Comeau, but neither Durocher nor Picard will return to the ice until Wednesday.

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