The two Quebec Major Junior Hockey League rivals will
meet in tomorrow’s MasterCard Memorial Cup semi-final game. The winner moves on
to Sunday’s Championship Game against the London Knights while the loser goes
home (or, in Shawinigan’s case, stays home).
The Cataractes advanced to the semi-final with a solid 6-1 victory over the Edmonton Oil Kings in the tie-breaker game. Yannick Veilleux,
Morgan Ellis, Anton Zlobin, Kirill Kabanov, Michael Bournival, and Pier-Olivier
Morin all scored for Shawinigan. Gabriel Girard made 29 saves for the win.
With the loss, the Western Hockey League champion Oil
Kings are the first team eliminated from this year’s Memorial Cup. They finish
with a 1-3 record and just couldn’t quite find their game in Shawinigan. Their
lone goal on Thursday came from Henrik Samuelsson while Laurent Brossoit
allowed six goals on 31 shots.
Shawinigan will have a tough test tomorrow night. Not
only will the Cats be playing the defending Memorial Cup champs but they will
also be playing their third game in three days. Three-in-threes aren’t uncommon
in the QMJHL, but it’s rare to play elite teams like these ones on a back-to-back-to-back
basis.
The Dogs and Cats met on Wednesday in round-robin action
and it was a wild one. Cheap shots, fights, and two coaches getting into it
were the memorable moments in the 4-1 Saint John victory. Both teams were fined
$2,500 for their shenanigans.
The teams met four times in the regular season with each
club winning two games. There was a lot of hate all season between them and
that certainly carried over into Wednesday’s game. What will we see tomorrow
night? We’ll find out in less than 24 hours.
Game time tomorrow is 8pm Atlantic. The game can be seen on
Sportsnet, heard on News 88.9, and followed on our live blog.
Photo credit: CP
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