Wednesday, May 7, 2025

Oceanic moving on; Wildcats Memorial Cup bound

The Rimouski Oceanic are heading to the QMJHL final – which means the Moncton Wildcats are Memorial Cup bound.

Former Saint John Sea Dogs captain Eriks Mateiko scored at 17:08 of double overtime in Game 7 of the QMJHL semifinal on Tuesday, giving the Oceanic a 4-3 win over the Shawinigan Cataractes to secure the Memorial Cup hosts a spot in the league final. With the Oceanic hosting, the Moncton Wildcats – who had already advanced to the league final – will automatically be the QMJHL's representative at the tournament. 

This will be Rimouski's first league final since 2015 when they won the Gilles Courteau Trophy by defeating the Memorial Cup host Quebec Remparts in seven games. The Wildcats will be playing in their first league final since 2010.

The Oceanic and Cataractes were scoreless after one period despite shots being 9-4 Rimouski. In the second, Jack Martin and Alexandre Blais scored 32 seconds apart and Jacob Mathieu converted later on to give the home side a 3-0 advantage. Shawinigan would add one before the period ended and trailed 3-1 entering the third.

Former Sea Dogs forward Vince Elie scored at 5:15 of the third and then Isaac Menard tied it at 16:23, sending the match into overtime and eventually double OT. That set up Mateiko's heroics late in the second overtime period.
Mateiko had a goal, six shots and six hits in the game while Elie posted a goal, four shots and three hits.

The home team won every game of this series. The Oceanic improved to 9-0 at home in these playoffs.

The QMJHL final will begin Saturday in Moncton with Game 2 taking place the following day. The remainder of the schedule has not yet been released.

As for the Wildcats, Tuesday's result will take a bit of pressure off them knowing they'll be heading to the Memorial Cup no matter the result of the league final. The two split their regular season series with each team winning on the road.

The Wildcats will advance to their third ever Memorial Cup tournament and first since 2010 in Brandon where they finished third. Moncton hosted in 2006 and lost in the final to the Remparts.

Some other Tuesday night stuff...

  • Vegas Golden Knights prospect Mathieu Cataford returned to the Oceanic lineup on Tuesday, playing his first game since April 11 due to an injury. This was just his sixth game of the post-season.
  • Cataractes forward Yoan Loshing was given a five-minute major and game misconduct for a check-to-the-head just 1:04 into overtime.
  • The dates for Games 1 and 2 of the QMJHL final were finally released on Tuesday. Game 1 will be played on Saturday at 5 p.m. while Game 2 will take place Sunday at 7 p.m. Both games are at Avenir Centre. The unusual start times are due to TSN and RDS broadcasting the games. The 5 p.m. start time will allow TSN to broadcast the Wildcats/Oceanic game and then go right into Game 2 of the OHL final between London and Oshawa at 8 p.m.
  • The Wildcats are changing things up. After asking fans to wear black in the first three rounds (and match the club's popular black third jerseys), the team is asking fans to wear white.
  • The Oceanic will be the first Memorial Cup host team to play in their league final since the Halifax Mooseheads in 2019. The Mooseheads lost the league final and the Memorial Cup final to the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies that year.
  • The OHL final between London and Oshawa begins Thursday night while the WHL final between Medicine Hat and Spokane begins Friday.
  • In the AHL playoffs, Joshua Roy had an assist and two shots in the Laval Rocket's 4-1 win over the Cleveland Monsters. Laval wins the best-of-five series 3-1 and will play the Rochester Americans in the North Division Finals.
  • In the ECHL playoffs, Kelly Bent served a minor penalty and had no shots on goal in the Orlando Solar Bears' 2-1 win over the Florida Everblades. Florida leads the series 2-1.
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