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Steve Hartley jokes that he’s looking forward to seeing “the villains” in this round of the QMJHL playoffs.

Hartley is the head coach of the Drummondville Voltigeurs but got his big career break in Halifax when the Mooseheads hired him to be Dominique Ducharme’s assistant back in 2011. He went on to help the team win its first-ever league championship and Memorial Cup in 2013 but now finds himself on the other side of the matchup in the upcoming third-round best-of-seven. The Mooseheads and Voltigeurs open their series in Drummondville on Friday.

“Halifax is a very special place for me,” Hartley said. “I’ll always be grateful to Bobby Smith for giving me my first chance in major junior with Dominique. And winning the Memorial Cup is obviously something that is a huge highlight for me. I (made) so many great memories with great people. I loved my three years there so it’s always special to come back. It’s almost like you’re coming home.”

Hartley wound up in Drummondville under circumstances similar to his arrival in Halifax. Ducharme had left the Mooseheads at the end of the 2015-16 season to be closer to his family in Quebec and was looking for help as the new head coach and general manager with the Voltigeurs.

Ducharme hired Hartley to be his right-hand man once again and later brought in his old captain from the Mooseheads to be his second assistant coach. Halifax native Ryan Falkenham played four seasons for Ducharme but had to retire from hockey before his overage year because of chronic hip problems. Ducharme recruited him at just 21 years old to join him on the bench and he is still there as Hartley’s assistant. Ducharme left the Voltigeurs after last season to join the Montreal Canadiens as an assistant coach, opening the door for Hartley to be promoted to the top job.

“It’s the same feeling for Ryan right now going back to Halifax and having played there and winning the Memorial Cup,” Hartley said. “He also still lives there in the summer. It’s a series that’s very special to the two of us. It’s not going to change anything that happens on the ice but it’s fun to be playing them.”

Hartley said Ducharme will be keenly tuned in to the series, so much so that he is unofficially involved as something of a consultant in Drummondville. The two have stayed in close contact all year and this year’s run by the Voltigeurs is the product of his vision from when he took the job back in 2016, so he is still emotionally attached.

“He was here on Friday for our game against Sherbrooke and Dom, with our current GM, we built this club over the past three years so it’s something that’s very near and dear to him,” Hartley said. “His fingerprints are all over this roster.

“It also goes back to my relationship with Dom. We’ve always been really close and worked together for a long time, right from when I started coaching 12 years ago. So if he can be around to help out, that would be a great thing for us, just with the knowledge and experience that he has.”

There are also two other Nova Scotians on the Voltigeurs roster. Dartmouth’s Gregor MacLeod was their third-highest scorer with 84 points after coming over from the Quebec Remparts in a September trade and Jarrett Baker of Black Rock (Victoria County) is in his third year on their blue line.

“When Bobby Lynch decided to go back to the U.S. right before training camp we were short a 20-year-old,” Hartley said. “That’s not something we had planned for in our ‘go for it’ year but Gregor’s been a great addition for us. He provided something we didn’t have — pure skill and offensively ability. That scoring touch was maybe that one thing we didn’t have. We have a lot of great players but a pure goal scorer like that added a dimension that really helped us. He and Joe (Veleno) had instant chemistry and they’ve been great.

“Jarrett was a fifth-round pick just like Falks and he reminds of that kind of steal in the draft,” Hartley added. “He does a lot of things right. He’s a stay-at-home defenceman and he plays in our top four and is a great shutdown guy against the other teams’ top lines.

“When he showed up here at 16 he was living in Cape Breton but he was commuting to Halifax to play so he was only on the ice two or three times a week. We didn’t really want him to go back to that kind of situation where he wouldn’t be playing that much so we kept him here. We told him ‘you might play 10 or 15 games but you’ll practice with our team and you’ll be on the ice every day.’ He was scratched for Game 1 and then he wasn’t out of the lineup after that. He’s been really good for us.”