Ron Valentine is profiling the 10 teams participating in the 2023 Centennial Cup in Portage la Prairie May 11-21. Today: the Quebec champion the Cobras de Terrebonne

By Ron Valentine

It took a seven-game final to decide the representative from the Ligue de Hockey Junior AAA du Quebec but the Cobras de Terrebonne prevailed over the Condors du Cegep-Beauce-Appalaches. 

The Cobras, ranked third in the nation, finished in first place in the regular season with 42 wins over 48 games, scoring 287 goals while allowing just 109. 

In the first round of the LHJAAAQ playoffs,they swept the Predateurs de Joliette before topping Titan de Princeville in five games in the semifinal. In the final, they had the lead three times but on each occasion their opponents kept bouncing back.

In the regular campaign, Steven Fournier led all scorers with 36 goals and 86 points. Anthony DiCesare ended with 81, Loic Gibeault had 70 and Logan Costenaro 69. 

DiCesare recorded 30 points in 16 playoff games. Blueliner and new club captain Zachary Cardinal, had 21, Fournier 20 and Gibeault 19.

Jacob Brochu had a goals against average of 2.03 in 11 games and Alexandre Marchand ws at 2.08 in 33 appearances over the regular season.

Only playing just seven regular season games after being obtained from the QMJHL's Saint John Seadogs, Nikolas Hurtubise, who was a member of that 2022 Memorial Cup winning club, had a 1.93 GAA in seven postseason starts.  Marchand ended at exactly 2.00. 

The club started out in 1988 as the Laval-Bourassa Cobras. In 1991-92 they were known as Montreal-Nord and from 1992 to 2003 as the La Plaine Cobras. 

Robert Dubuc has been the club's GM/head coach for 16 seasons. Real Douville is the director of hockey operations. 

The Cobras play out of the Complex Sportif de Terrebonne, a 35-minute drive from the Bell Centre in downtown Montreal. The main ice pad has seating for just over 1,000 fans. A team from the Quebec league has yet to win the national championship.

Coach Dubuc: "In the week of Jan. 23 we were ranked No. 1 in Canada. It was after that point that we started to face a little bit of adversity. We lost our captain, Anthony Bedard, (he missed 16 games in the regular season) and in the playoffs he had a hat trick but he was only able to play three games before being back on the injury list."

"We won the Fred Page Cup in 2017 beating the Carleton Place Canadians and went to the Royal Bank Cup in Cobourg before losing to Brooks in the semifinal. Now we have a chance to take that extra step in Portage. This is probably the deepest team I have coached. We can skate, which you have to be able to do in this league, but we also have size as well as being fast and we have two No. 1 goalies."

"In Round 1 against Joliette we faced our goalie from last season, Alexis St. Amour-Lachance, and in the triple overtime game, the second game of the series we had 82 shots on him and managed to pull off the 2-1 win. We were expecting a tough series when we played Princeville but we played our best to win. In the final against Beauce it was really back and forth, we kept going ahead but they always bounced back. They are a newer club and have a really good organization."

"We have been getting great support all season from our fans and in Game 7 of the final we had 1,800. It was jam-packed. We have also been part of the celebration and festivities for the 350th anniversary of Terrebonne."

"To be successful at the Centennial Cup we need to keep our identity. We cannot feel intimidated. We know we have a good team and we want the players to feel at home and at ease so they can play their best hockey. We want to make history" 

For more on the Centennial Cup, go to the tournament website: https://www.hockeycanada.ca/en-ca/national-championships/men/national-junior-a/2023