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| Candice Ward/CHL |
The Thunderbirds defeated the Peterborough Petes 4-1 in Friday night's semifinal, earning a spot in the championship game. The Remparts, meanwhile, earned a bye straight through to the final after defeating Seattle on Monday.
The Memorial Cup championship match will take place Sunday night at 8 p.m. Atlantic and can be seen on TSN.
Quebec defeated Seattle 3-1 in that preliminary round game. Despite being outshot 36-22, the Remparts had an impressive defensive performance, keeping quality Seattle scoring chances to a minimum.
Both squads finished 2-1 in the preliminary round. Quebec's lone loss came on Tuesday when they dropped a meaningless game (for the Remparts, anyways) to the Petes.
It's certainly not a shock to see these two meeting in the final. Quebec finished first in the QMJHL regular season standings and had a relatively smooth ride to the Gilles-Courteau Trophy championship. Seattle likely has the most star power of any team in junior hockey and defeated two very tough opponents, the Kamloops Blazers and Winnipeg Ice, in the WHL playoffs.
The Remparts, who feature former Saint John Sea Dogs forward Charles Savoie, will look to win their first Memorial Cup since 2006. If Quebec wins, it will be the fourth straight national championship for the QMJHL.
No WHL team has won the Memorial Cup since the 2014 Edmonton Oil Kings. No WHL champion has appeared in the final since 2015 when the Kelowna Rockets fell to the Oshawa Generals in Quebec City.
The host Blazers were eliminated by the Petes in Thursday's tie-breaker game, blowing a 4-1 lead and falling 5-4 in overtime. This is the first time since 2016 in Red Deer that the host team did not qualify for the final. It's also the first time since the 2014 London Knights that the host will finish in last-place.
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