QMJHL: Can Cataractes claim top spot with Gormley gone?

What is worse for a team vying for first overall in the league: being docked two points on a technicality or losing your No. 1 defenceman for nearly the rest of the regular season?

Brandon Gormley, who was the most sought after talent at the QMJHL trade deadline, will be lost to the Shawinigan Cataractes for at least a month with a fractured bone in his foot. The 19-year-old who was top defenceman at the world junior championship evidently suffered that last week in a first-place showdown against the Saint John Sea Dogs during a game he later left after having his neck gashed by Sea Dogs forward Charlie Coyle's skate.

(Cue Sea Dogs supporters, in the wake of the team vacating a win for use of an ineligible player, wondering if Saint John will get docked another two points because Gormley sustained his injury against them.)

This is a huge twist, to put it mildly, in the intense two-horse race between the Cats and the Sea Dogs for home-ice advantage throughout the President's Cup playoffs. The Saint John forfeiture for using forward Maxime Villemaire in a game before he had signed a player card — one wonders if this is something that happens occasionally but was acted upon this time because of the stakes involved — has the teams dead even with 14 games to play. Each has 78 points through 54 games after winning on Saturday.

Shawinigan had yet to reap the maximum benefit of having Gormley, the league's best defenceman, since they were 6-2-0-1 in the nine games he played before being injured. Not having him obviously puts a greater onus on Montreal Canadiens fourth-round choice Morgan Ellis to run the show on the Cats' back end. Any serious injury for Shawinigan, of course, comes with the disclaimer that they are already in the MasterCard Memorial Cup. Not having Gormley for the stretch drive, of course, could hurt their potential to go in through the front door by winning the league title.

The rivals meet on March 11, exactly four weeks from today, in Shawinigan.

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Contact him at neatesager@yahoo.ca and follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet (photo: The Canadian Press).