Martin Frk takes a picture during the Mooseheads celebration (Andrew Vaughan, The Canadian Press)

In a perfectly Maritime moment few could have imagined when they were in the cellar three years ago, the Halifax Mooseheads have become the first team to qualify for the upcoming Mastercard Memorial Cup, joining the host Saskatoon Blades.

With their emphatic 5-1 win that sealed a 4-1 President's Cup final win over the Baie-Comeau Drakkar, the Mooseheads matched the 2012 Saint John Sea Dogs' fate of nearly running the table in the playoffs. With their 16-1 post-season, they became the ninth team to go through the QMJHL post-season with only one loss.

Halifax hit hard times from 2008-09 through 2010-11 when it missed the playoffs twice in a row and also finished fourth-last in the 18-team QMJHL. But a rebuilding program centred around 17-year-old top prospects Jonathan Drouin and Nathan MacKinnon and Czech scorer Martin Frk changed the culture in the Nova Scotia, leading to a dominant season and Friday's celebration at a sold-out Halifax Metro Centre.

Stefan Fournier, Nathan MacKinnon and the Mooseheads should win in 6, writes Mike Sanderson (The Canadian Press)

(2) Baie-Comeau Drakkar (44-19-2-3, .684) vs. (1) Halifax Mooseheads (58-6-3-1, .882)

Odds favour: Halifax 76 per cent. Most statistically probably outcome: Halifax in 5.

Mike’s prediction: Halifax in 6.

It took a lot of upsets and bloodshed to get to where we are in the QMJHL playoffs, but anyone with a standings page could have pointed to these two favourites and predicted they would make it to the final.

Either way, we have a 1-vs-2 final that could be a barnburner, and will definitely be a thriller.

The Mooseheads have left a trail of Saint John Sea Dogs, Gatineau Olympiques and Rouyn-Noranda Huskies in their midst to get to this point. The Drakkar defeated the Sherbrooke Phoenix, Victoriaville Tigres and Blainville-Boisbriand Armada to get here.

Behind the benches, last year’s Memorial Cup winning coach Eric Veilleux is back in the final this year with the Drakkar. He clearly knows how to get the best out of his players and what’s at stake, as he was able to coach the Shawinigan Cataractes against all odds, beating the champions from the WHL, QMJHL and OHL in three straight elimination games, to a Memorial Cup win last May.

He will be up against Dominique Ducharme, who has never been this far in the QMJHL playoffs and hasn’t really been tested matchup-wise. Ducharme was able to outwit Patrick Roy in last year’s playoffs though, so he is capable of playing and winning a mind game. Veilleux will give him a go this series, to be sure.

There is a chance P.E.I. coach Gordie Dwyer and promising Alexis Pepin could stay put in Charlottetown (Clement Allard, The Canadian Press)The P.E.I. Rocket could live on to become the P.E.I. Islanders after all, instead of the return of les Éperviers de Sorel.

P.E.I.'s flagship newspaper, The Guardian, reports that a prospective group has come forward with a letter of intent to purchase the P.E.I. Rocket franchise and keep them in Charlottetown. Both the league and the current owners of the Rocket have read the letter, and the ball is in their court to respond.

From the looks of things, the group’s structure is set up similarly to the new Acadie-Bathurst Titan ownership. Grant Sonier, a Prince Edward Island native and former NHL employee in various positions, is acting as the leader of the group and the group’s spokesman.

Sonier was interviewed during in the first intermission of Game 4 between the Halifax Mooseheads and the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies by Mooseheads play-by-play man John Moore. Sonier feels that the group has put their best offer forward.

"We've stepped up to the plate and we feel we've done all the due diligence to make as attractive of an offer as we can,” Sonier said to Moore.

“We'll wait between now and the noon deadline. If it means we're up all night working, then we're up all night working ... We went public because we want people to understand that we're serious."

Later Thursday, Moore tweeted that he’s heard the group now has support from the city of Charlottetown and the provincial government.

Hearing from handful of trustworthy sources there will be Q team on PEI next season. New ownership group in place with support of city/prov.

— John Moore (@rinkrant) April 25, 2013

The league instituted an April 26 deadline for the sale of the Rocket before the league would buy the franchise. It was then heavily rumoured that the league would sell the franchise to a

Mikhail GrigorenkoQuebec Remparts forward Mikhail Grigorenko had the first three-game stretch of the QMJHL season where he was held pointless, and his coach Patrick Roy went so far as to question his effort during his recent three-game slide.

Grigorenko has been shut down offensively by the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies in their second round series so far, offering a single goal in four games. Grigorenko has 13 points in the playoffs so far, but 12 of those came in Quebec’s triumph over the Chicoutimi Sagueneens in six games in the first round.

Roy was asked about Grigorenko’s play to date in the series after the team’s 5-2 loss in Game 3 against the Huskies, and he responded with a simple answer.

“He won’t have any points [with] the way he’s been playing,” he said to the throng of scribes outside the coaches’ room at Aréna Iamgold. “He has to be ready and he’d better rebound [Wednesday], that’s it.”

Grigorenko seemed to respond in Wednesday night’s Game 4 in Rouyn-Noranda with a power play goal, but it wasn’t

Titan owner Leo-Guy Morrissette

The QMJHL relocation wheel may have to take another spin as it looks like one maritime possibility has been sold.

Acadie-Bathurst Titan owner and general manager Léo-Guy Morrissette has reached an agreement with local businessman Léopold Theriault to keep the team in northern New Brunswick. The sale is pending league approval.

CBC reported earlier this month that Theriault is looking for as many as 35 investors to join him in keeping the team in Bathurst. It was announced Wednesday that Theriault is the guy and former Titan and current  NHLer Patrice Bergeron of the Boston Bruins is reportedly with him.

On me confirme qu'il y a entente entre Léo-Guy Morissettte et le groupe de Léopold Thériault pour la vente du Titan.

— Mikaël Lalancette (@MLalancette) April 11, 2013

Each investor would contribute $100,000 or more.

The sale ends the Morrissette era in the QMJHL. Morrissette, a long-time outspoken owner and representative of the league, moved the team to Bathurst in 1998 from

Flynn is staying in the Wildcats organization (The Canadian Press)The dust has settled, but it still looks bleak for the Moncton Wildcats.

Danny Flynn is out as coach, but will retain his Director of Hockey Operations title. Flynn lost in the opening round the last three seasons. Team owner and president Robert Irving stated that losing isn’t acceptable: “The organization is very disappointed. Our program is about winning. We’re not here to lose. It’s not satisfactory,” he told The Moncton Times & Transcript recently.

In their series against the Victoriaville Tigres, Flynn was outfoxed by the Tigres' Yanick Jean. Knowing Wildcats top scorer Dmitrij Jaskin was the main catalyst for the team, Jean dressed 10 forwards and eight defencemen, freeing up one player, Carl-Antoine Delisle, to shadow Jaskin. Jaskin earned a goal and an assist in Game 5, but only one other point in the series. Flynn tried to juggle the lines but could not get Jaskin away from Delisle.

Grigorenko has to get by good pal Nikita Kucherov in the Huskies-Remparts series (Richard Wolowicz, Getty Images)

The QMJHL first-round series featured a number of teams who took their opponents lightly – and got burned.

The Rimouski Océanic, Moncton Wildcats and P.E.I. Rocket were knocked out of the playoffs thanks to major upsets from the Gatineau Olympiques, Victoriaville Tigres and Val-d’Or Foreurs. No series went the full seven games in the first round, with each series win decisive.

With that being said, the three division leaders in the QMJHL are now licking their chops for their second-round matchups. Will they learn from the first-round punch-outs? All games begin Friday night.

Groulx's underdog Olympiques are trying to upset RimouskiIn the saga of two QMJHL coaches bickering like two seven-year-olds fighting over an ice cream cone, it appears they never really know when to quit.

Even when they say they’re quitting.

The mud was flung by both sides Tuesday as the first-round series between the Rimouski Océanic and the Gatineau Olympiques moved to the Outaouais region. The series is deadlocked at 1-1, with Game 3 in Gatineau Tuesday.

On Monday, Océanic coach Serge Beausoleil accused the Olympiques of diving and faking injuries to get penalty calls. This escalated a war of words between he and Gatineau coach Benoît Groulx.

"We will keep attacking those who continue to fall to the ice to make us take penalties,” Beausoleil said. “It insults me to the highest point. It degrades the sport. If someone did that on our side... It's happened earlier this season and we showed clips to the players. The coaches also have a job to do to prevent it."

Rimouski was actually leading in total power plays in the first two games, though the Olympiques are 2-for-9 and the Océanic are 1-for-10.