1984 AQHL PLayoffs

 

First Round

1st Moncton Bears vs. 8th Laval Tigers

The Moncton Bears wasted no time and swept the first round for the third playoff year in a row. The Laval Tigers didn’t even put up a good fight, including a 9-0 game four loss that left the Tigers fans leaving the Laval Centre with a bad taste in their mouths. The Bears won the series 4-0.

2nd Trois-Rivieres Titans vs. 7th Cape Breton Warriors

The Titans had a good chance of winning this series, but the Cape Breton Warriors had other ideas by forcing the series to go all the way in game seven, where Trois-Rivieres barely got the win in overtime 5-4 after coming back from a 4-1 deficit going into the third period. The Titans wins the series 4-3.

3rd Manchester Americans vs. 6th Sherbrooke Loups

For the second playoff year in a row, the Americans advanced to the second round, and this time, it took them five games to do so. The Loups had a rough time, only winning one game with some youth in their core. Some staff in the Loups group felt that this could be a sign that this team is leading into a rebuild. If so, they are hoping that this won’t be as bad as the last rebuild. The Americans won the series 4-1.

4th Portland Clippers vs. 5th Fredericton Vikings

The first four games were back-and-forth, but in game five, Paul Gamble scored three goals in the third to win 5-2. Then, the Clippers finished the Vikings off in game six 4-2 with the help of Ron Renaud's 4 points (2G-2A) performance to move on to the second round for the first time since the 1973-74 season. The Clippers won the series 4-2.

 Second Round

1st Moncton Bears vs. 4th Portland Clippers

The Clippers came into the second round hoping for at least a win, but it didn’t happen as rookie Kurt Dresden shines throughout the series with his 16 points (6G-10A) within four games as, once again, the Moncton Bears are heading to the Bronz Cup Finals for the fourth year in a row. The Bears wins the series 4-0.

2nd Trois-Rivieres Titans vs. 3rd Manchester Americans

The Titans had everything going on their end in game one, but after that, it was all Americans as they won four straight games to win the series in an upset way where a lot of critics did not expect the Americans to move on to the Bronz Cup Finals let alone beating a favourite Titans. “Today, we prove them wrong. We are ready to show everyone we can hang tan with the Bears.” Americans head coach Randy Reinhart said during post game interview. The Americans wins the series 4-1.

Bronz Cup Finals

1st Moncton Bears vs. 3rd Manchester Americans

Many Bears fans are hoping to finally, at long last, win the Bronz Cup for the first time since 1976. The Americans showed heart in this series, but it was not enough to win any game in this series as the Bears dominated the series, led by Shawn Metcalfe being a brick wall and not letting any pucks go behind him, along with Kurt Dresden scoring performances and both John Handley and Eric Gall held their grounds against the Americans offence as the Bears win all four games all shutouts. As the last period came to an end, both the Bears celebrated in Manchester as they were the 1984 Bronz Cup champions. As the Bears players take turns raising the Cup, Don Reese, the co-owner of the Bears, said in a post-game interview, “Get ready, Moncton, we are going to Buffalo, and we will raise that Valor Cup like what we did with the Bronz Cup.” The Bears wins the series 4-0.

1983-84 AQHL Season

 

The Charlottetown Greens made their debut on October 19, 1983, against the Cape Breton Warriors. The Greens won 5-2 in front of a sold-out Charlottetown Arena, and rookie forward Bill Robby scored the team’s first goal in team history. He would score two more goals in that game for a hat trick. Bill would have a hot streak for the next three months until he got a season-ending injury, which the Greens went on to finish 14th.

Tension was rising between the Shawinigan Voltages owner Pierre Leflar and the city of Shawinigan as neither could come up with the funds for a new arena. To make things worse, AQHL President Paul Name had multiple talks with Pierre about his gambling problems. What even more issues between the two were Pierre Leflar decided to let go of GM Mitchell Lalime and trade away some top players for mostly cash as the team was once a favourite to go to the top of the league but hit rock bottom sort of, they won enough games to finished 13th place. In an interview, Paul said if things don’t resolve soon, he and the league would get involved, take the ownership away from Pierre, and put the team up for sale to keep them in Shawinigan or relocate elsewhere.

After losing their top goalie, Seth Taylor, to the Washington Red Tails (NIHA), the Moncton Bears rely on Shawn Metcalfe as their starter goalie in his second season; he performed very well, winning 30 of 40 games he played 10 of them were shutouts to give the Bears a first-place finish for the second season in a row with a 42-6-2 record with the total of 86 points. After missing the playoffs for three years, the Trois-Rivieres Titans are finally back in Bronz Cup contender mode, all thanks to the Minnesota Nationals (NIHA) for sending Keith Rice back to the Titans and helping them to a second-place finish, winning 20 out of 30 games with 13 shutouts. For the first time in the team’s history, the Manchester Americans finished in the top 3 with Roy Messier leading the team with 34 goals; 72 points were his best ever, but he is not the only one who led his team to the top 3, Kevin Gassoff’s 70 points (30G, 40A) performance was the key factor for the team’s 33-13-4 record, many believe that the Americans could go deep into the playoffs. Taking 4th place is the Portland Clippers their best since 1973-74 season where they finished 5th place, Clippers rookie M.J. Daigneault top the league with 94 points (35G, 59A) became the first rookie in AQHL history to be the top player of the league. Had some issues with some key players getting injured, luckily, the Fredericton Vikings would have won the last 10 games to finish 5th place. With losing Shawn Thomas being drafted to the Colorado Huskies (NIHA) and Lenny Tardif getting called up by the Edmonton Emeralds (NIHA), the Sherbrooke Loups had a hard time staying in the top 5, but they lost the last game to the Vikings as they the Loups finished 6th. After missing the playoffs last season, the Cape Breton Warriors made some key victories to finish 7th place, lead by Mike Gamble who finally broke through after 20 points from last season, this year he got 55 points (19G, 36A) to top the team stats. Last season went down badly, but this season was a nice bounce back for the Laval Tigers after winning the last five games, including beating Drummondville three times to take the 8th and final spot in the playoffs.

To round off the rest, Drummondville is 9th, Verdun is 10th, Val-d’Or is 11th, New Glasgow is 12th, Shawinigan is 13th, Charlottetown is 14th, and Rouyn-Noranda is 15th.