Memorial Cup: Hosts inching toward potential berth in championship game

 

SAGINAW, MICH – Out to prove they belong and can compete with the champions from around the Canadian Hockey League, the Saginaw Spirit are a win away from earning a spot directly in the final of the 2024 Memorial Cup.

The Ontario Hockey League club picked up their second win of the 10-day event on Sunday night at the Dow Event Center by beating the Quebec Maritime Hockey League’s Drummondville Voltigeurs.

The win came after the Voltigeurs stormed out of the game and took a first period lead over the hosts.

Spirit coach Chris Lazary said there was a feeling of determination within the team, even after falling behind by a pair of goals through one period.

“We’re on a mission,” Lazary said.

Lazary also said that, after the opening period, he went into the Spirit dressing room and told his team that if they duplicated the opening period “we’re good.”

“For most teams, maybe (being down) is deflating for them, but for us, it’s just like ‘We’re okay. We’re fine,’” Lazary added.

After a solid opening period, Drummondville coach Sylvain Favreau wasn't pleased with the final 40 minutes from his club. 

“I really liked our first period aside from the last minute or two,” Favreau said. “We played within our identity. I really liked our pace and the urgency that we played with. I’m really disappointed with the second period. Even though we scored a power play goal at the end, we sort of lost our identity, our pace of play. It was important to have a good third period and we had two costly mistakes.”

Drummondville got on the board first after a Saginaw turnover in the neutral zone led to a 2-on-1 in the Spirit zone. Luke Woodworth proceeded to beat Spirit goaltender Andrew Oke from the left circle on a one-timer of a pass from Ethan Gauthier nine minutes into the game.

With 2:26 to go in the period, the Voltigeurs took a 2-0 lead as Peter Repcik beat Oke from in close after a point shot from Vsevolod Komarov missed the net initially.

With just under eight minutes to go in the second period, Saginaw got on the board on a delayed penalty. Alex Christopoulos skated into the Drummondville zone, cut toward the slot and beat Riley Mercer high stick side at 12:04.

With 4:15 to go in the period, Saginaw tied the game as Hunter Haight dropped the puck to Michael Misa before taking a hit from a Drummondville player and then going to the net and redirecting a pass past Mercer.

Drummondville retook the lead with 45 seconds to go in the period as Justin Cote beat Andrew Oke high glove through traffic on the power play.

Saginaw tied the game again at 5:54 of the third period as Nic Sima went to the net and scored on a rebound of a shot by Zayne Parekh.

Haight gave the Spirit the lead with at 12:16 as he beat Mercer with a shot from the slot that handcuffed the Voltigeurs netminder.

Misa assisted on three of Saginaw's four goals in the victory.

Oke made 21 saves.

Woodworth had a goal and an assist for the Voltigeurs while Komarov assisted on a pair of goals for Drummondville.

Mercer made 27 saves in the loss for Drummondville.

Saginaw now holds a 2-0 record while the Voltigeurs are 0-2.

Drummondville will wrap up their round robin schedule on Tuesday night with a game against the Western Hockey League’s Moose Jaw Warriors.

Saginaw now has a pair of days off before capping off the round robin Wednesday night by facing the OHL-champion London Knights.

London and Moose Jaw are set to meet on Monday night.

Game Notes

Lines

Drummondville
Alexis Gendron-Peter Repcik-Mikael Huchette
Justin Cote-Luke Woodworth-Ethan Gauthier
Kassim Gaudet-Sam Oliver-Noah Reinhart
Maxime Lafond-Lukas Landry-Renaud Poulin
Marc-Olivier Beaudry-Vsevolod Komarov
Matteo Rotondi-Mikael Diotte
Yan Gaudreau-Simon-Pier Brunet
Riley Mercer
Louis-Felix Charrois

Saginaw
Josh Bloom-Owen Beck-Alex Christopoulos
Joey Willis-Matyas Sapovaliv-Calem Mangone
Michael Misa-Hunter Haight-Nic Sima
Sebastien Gervais-Ethan Hay-Lincoln Moore
Jorian Donovan-James Guo
Braden Hache-Zayne Parekh

Rodwin Dionicio-Will Bishop
Andrew Oke
Nolan Lalonde

Scratches

Drummondville – Maxime-Olivier Drolet, Maveric Lamoureaux (injury), William Dumont, Vincent Tremblay

Saginaw – Kaleb Papineau, Josh Glavin, Graydon Jones, Carson Harmer, Liam Storch, P.J. Forgione, Jacob Cloutier, Aidan Castle

Previous Coverage
Saginaw vs. Moose Jaw - May 24, 2024
Drummondville vs. London - May 25, 2024