Rouen stays French Ligue Magnus champion

Play-offs have been easy for Rouen. After a regular season finished at the top of the rankings, Rouen Dragons went undefeated during the post season with 9 wins and 0 loss against Morzine-Avoriaz, Amiens and finally Strasbourg in the final.

There was no miracle this time for Strasbourg after three surprising wins against Epinal, Gap and Angers in the semi-finals. In the first game, Rouen took an early 3-1 lead in the game after the first period and protected it until the end of the game for a 5-1 win. Canadian forwards Carl Mallette and Pierre-François Guenette each scored 2 goals in this game. Another bad news for Strasbourg was the loss of defensemen Ziga Svete and Pasi Petrilaïnen. The Finnish defenseman suffered from an arm injury in this game and couldn't return for the two other games.

In the second game, Strasbourg was able to come back from a 3-1 deficit and tied the game at 3-3 at the end of the second period. In the third period, another Canadian forward Marc-André Thinel was the difference maker for Rouen with 2 goals scored. Rouen won 5-3 and was one win away from a 11^th title.

Strasbourg hoped that playing the 3^rd game on home ice would make a difference as the team was undefeated at home in the play-offs. However the loss of two defensemen in the first game proved to be costly for Strasbourg as the team used to play a defense oriented game.  Rouen took an early 2-1 lead after only 6 minutes played. Teddy Da Costa scored his second goal of the game to give Rouen a 2 goals lead. Juho Lehtisalo responded but Julien Desrosiers scored the 4^th and final goal. Nothing was scored in the third period and Rouen could celebrate a second title in as many years. This 4-2 win was the 20^th consecutive one for Rouen who went undefeated since returning from the Continental Cup finals.

Rouen and former Team France forward Jonathan Zwikel announced his retirement at the end of the final. Strasbourg forwards David Cayer and Jan Cibula lead the play-offs in scoring with 22 and 17 pts in 15 games.

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