SAGINAW, MICH – For both teams, it was a night in which they were facing elimination.
The second-last day of the round robin portion of the 2024 Memorial Cup had a flare for the dramatic as the Western Hockey League’s Moose Jaw Warriors got a late shorthanded goal to pick up a 5-3 win over the Quebec Maritimes Hockey League’s Drummondville Voltigeurs.
The Warriors stay alive thanks to a shorthanded goal by Aiden Ziprick with 94 seconds left to conclude the round robin with a 1-2 record.
“It’s pretty special,” Ziprick said of the goal. “I’ll definitely remember that for the rest of my life.”
“There was a little bit of a scrum in the corner there and I thought we might come out with the puck,” Ziprick said of the winning goal. “Denton made a good pass to me and the rest I just kind of blacked out
“It couldn’t happen to a better guy,” Warriors coach Mark O’Leary said of the winning goal.
“He’s a popular teammate,” O’Leary added. “He works hard everyday.”
O’Leary said the Warriors started the game “looking like ourselves.”
“It was out best start in terms of overall play,” O’Leary said. “We had everybody playing the right way. We got a little bit of momentum from that and we had some opportunities early on that we couldn’t cash in on.”
“For the first half of the game, we were really good,” O’Leary added. “We got a little pushback there and were on our heels a little bit, but you expect that from another team that’s won a championship.”
The start to the game was a concern for Voltigeurs coach Sylvan Favreau in the loss.
“I didn’t like the way we started the game,” Favreau said. “We found out style of play and our identity in the second and third period.
“We had tons of opportunities,” Favreau added. “To win championships, you need breaks to go your way and we certainly did in the third period. We were waiting for a power play opportunity. We have a great power play and obviously that stung us with a late goal.”
Moose Jaw opened the scoring as Vojtech Port went to the net and redirected a cross-crease pass from Atley Calvert past Drummondville goaltender Riley Mercer on a three-way passing play at 13:04.
Just over five minutes into the second period, Jagger Firkus beat Mercer from the left circle on a pass from Brayden Yager to make it 2-0 Moose Jaw.
The Warriors took a 3-0 lead when Denton Mateychuk converted on a loose puck after Yager couldn't get a clean handle on a pass jn the slot at 12:43.
Drummondville got on the scoreboard for the first time when Justin Cote beat Moose Jaw goaltender Jackson Unger with a one-timer from the right circle on a pass from Luke Woodworth at 14:46.
The Voltigeurs proceeded to pull within one when Peter Repcik beat Unger with a shot from the left wing that beat the Warriors netminder high stick side 57 seconds later.
Drummondville tied the game at three 3:13 into the third period when Mikael Huchette won a faceoff deep in the Moose Jaw zone to Alexis Gendron who proceeded to skate into the slot and beat Unger high glove side.
With Firkus in the penalty box late in regulation time, Ziprick skated into the slot and took a pass from Mateychuk before beating Mercer glove side with 1:34 to go.
Brayden Yager capped off the victory with an empty net goal with 10 seconds to goal to seal the win for the Warriors.
Mateychuk and Yager had a goal and two assists each to pace the Warriors offensively.
Unger made 49 saves in the win.
Mercer stoppe 23 shots at the other end.
Cote had a goal and an assist in the loss.
The winner of Wednesday’s game between the Spirit and Knights will finish 3-0 and earn a spot directly in the final on Sunday.
Moose Jaw will face the loser of the Spirit/Knights game in Friday’s semifinal.
Tuesday’s loss eliminates Drummondville from the tournament as the QMJHL champs finish the tournament with a record of 0-3.
During Tuesday’s game, the Canadian Hockey League announced that London forward Sawyer Boulton has been suspended for one game for a warmup violation prior to the Knights game against Moose Jaw on Monday night. Boulton made contact with a Moose Jaw player as he left the ice late in warmups. The Knights have also been fined $1,000 as a result of the incident.
Game Notes
Lines
Moose
Jaw
Matthew
Savoie-Brayden Yager-Jagger Firkus
Lynden
Lakovic-Brayden Schuurman-Atley Calvert
Martin
Rysavy-Ethan Semeniuk-Rilen Kovacevic
Pavel
McKenzie-Owen Berge-Ethan Hughes
Denton
Mateychuk-Kalem Parker
Lucas Brenton-Cosmo
Wilson
Aiden
Ziprik-Vojtech Port
Jackson
Unger
Dimitri Fortin
Drummondville
Justin
Cote-Luke Woodworth-Ethan Gauthier
Alexis
Gendron-Peter Repcik-Mikael Huchette
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
Scratches
Moose Jaw – Evan May, Landen McFadden, Noah Degenstein, Brady Ness, Connor Schmidt, Max Finley
Drummondville – Maxime-Olivier Drolet, Maveric Lamoureaux (injury), William Dumont, Vincent Tremblay
Previous
Coverage
Saginaw vs. Moose Jaw - May 24, 2024
Drummondville vs. London - May 25, 2024
Drummondville
vs. Saginaw – May 26, 2024
Moose
Jaw vs. London – May
27, 2024
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