Wednesday, April 20, 2005 | By Philip Croucher, Halifax Daily News

Calm, cool and collected. That's how Jeremy Duchesne played in the regular season for the Halifax Mooseheads. And thus far, it's how he's played in the post-season too.

"Keeping his composure and challenging was what we expected from him, because that's how he's played since he's been here," Mooseheads coach Al MacAdam said yesterday of his No. 1 puckstopper. "But to play in playoffs is a little different, so to rise to the occasion again, we're pleased with that."

Duchesne, a playoff rookie, showed no fear in leading Halifax to a 4-1 series win over the Gatineau Olympiques in the best-of-seven Quebec Major Junior Hockey League quarterfinals.

In fact, Duchesne was at his best when the pressure was its highest. In Games 3 and 4 in Gatineau, Duchesne backstopped Halifax to a pair of critical overtime wins - the first of which went into double overtime.

And in that Game 3 victory, Gatineau pressured Halifax with plenty of good scoring chances, only to be turned away each time by the 18-year-old Duchesne, who is quickly becoming an elite goaltender in the QMJHL.

Duchesne's best stop came about a minute into the second overtime session, when he somehow denied Olympiques forward David Krejci on a wide-open shot from point-blank range.

"I don't feel any different in overtime than in the regular periods," said Duchesne, who finished with 23 stops in the two overtimes, including 20 in Game 3. "My job is to stop the puck; it's just in overtime, you have less margin of error. It's part of the game, and I don't stress myself. I tend to find it's a lot better that way."

That effective, stress-free style is how Duchesne played in the regular season with Halifax, and it eventually led him to take over the starter's job from Jason Churchill, who is now the team's back-up.

Duchesne, traded to Halifax from the Victoriaville Tigres on Jan. 8, is an astounding 16-1-2 with the Mooseheads, including 12-0-2 during the regular season.

"He's played well. He's a focused kid," said Mooseheads defenceman Jimmy Sharrow.

"He comes from a good background, obviously from his dad (former NHLer Gaetan Duchesne). I think in that first series, he was very well prepared."

The Mooseheads are confident that will continue in their upcoming semifinal series with the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies, which begins Friday night at the Metro Centre. Heading into the semifinals, Duchesne leads all playoff goaltenders with a 2.09 goals-against-average, and his .922 save-percentage is fourth best.

"Rouyn-Noranda has a good offence and it will be a tough series," Duchesne said.

"The last time we played them, it was my first game in Halifax and we won 4-2.

"But I can't really focus on that game, because I just came here and it wasn't the same. It will be fun to see how things go."