Sea Dogs to face Bulldogs in final

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

SAINT JOHN - The Hamilton Bulldogs will face the Saint John Sea Dogs in the 2022 Memorial Cup final on Wednesday at TD Station.

Jan Mysak scored at 10:08 of overtime to give the Bulldogs a 4-3 win over the Shawinigan Cataractes in Monday night's semifinal. 

Hamilton had regulation time goals from Artem Grushnikov, Mason McTavish and Logan Morrison. Marco Costantini made 33 saves in the win.

Mavrik Bourque, Olivier Nadeau and William Veillette scored for the Cataractes. Antoine Coulombe got the start in goal once again, making 39 saves in the loss.

The two teams entered the third period tied 2-2. It looked as though Hamilton may have taken the lead with 12:27 remaining in the period but the goal was called off due to an official blowing the whistle before the puck crossed the line. Shawinigan quickly capitalized when an Angus Booth point shot was redirected by Veillette to give the Cataractes a 3-2 lead at 10:01.

Hamilton would respond though. At 13:56, Ryan Winterton found Morrison in the slot who beat Coulombe five-hole to tie the game at 3-3 and send it into overtime.

After the teams traded some quality chances in the overtime period, a low Nathan Staios point shot was redirected past the pad of Coulombe to send the Bulldogs into the final.

The Sea Dogs and Bulldogs will meet in the national final on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at TD Station. The game is sold out.

OTHER THINGS

• The doors to TD Station continue to open early. Doors opened a little before 5:40 p.m. on Monday.
• The TD Station scoreboard was back to operating at 100%.
• Samuel Dove-McFalls and Gerard Gallant performed the ceremonial puck drop.
• Hamilton defenseman Nathan Staios played after getting injured in the Bulldogs' final game of the round-robin. Forward Lawson Sherk also appeared in his first game of the tournament.
• This was the second overtime game of the tournament. The other was the Edmonton Oil Kings' 4-3 victory over the Sea Dogs in the round-robin, which was played at three-on-three.
• The 50/50 winner took home $16,673.