SAGINAW, MICH – For the first time since 2017, it’s going to be an all-Ontario final at the Memorial Cup.
The Saginaw Spirit scored six unanswered goals en route to a 7-1 win over the Moose Jaw Warriors Friday night at the Dow Event Center in semifinal play.
The Spirit will take on the London Knights in Sunday’s championship game.
Spirit coach Chris Lazary called Saginaw’s fourth line their “best line” in the win.
Saginaw’s line of Ethan Hay centering Lincoln Moore and Sebastien Gervais combined for 10 points in the victory.
“I’m real proud of specific guys in that room,” Lazary said. “Our fourth line hasn’t played much all tournament. For those guys to go out and put the team on their back and a leader like (Braden Hache) to pull those guys aside and telling them all week, ‘You’re going to do something big in this tournament for this group,’ tonight they were a huge reason why we won.”
For the Spirit, Sunday’s final will be a chance at redemption after falling to the Knights in the OHL playoffs and then dropping a 4-2 decision to the OHL club in Wednesday’s round robin finale.
For the Warriors, Friday’s setback wasn’t easy to take.
“It’s a tough one,” Warriors coach Mark O’Leary said of the loss. “It’s a tough way to go out. Saginaw played a heck of a hockey game. They forecheck hard and we couldn’t really get anything going, starting with our exits. Things were hard along the wall and we just weren’t able to get pucks going north as well as we’d like and spent a lot of time in our zone.”
Saginaw opened the scoring just over three minutes into the contest as Ethan Hay took a pass in the left circle and beat Jackson Unger after Sebastien Gervais and Lincoln Moore forced a turnover behind the Warriors net.
Moose Jaw thought they had the game tied just over a minute later as defenceman Lucas Benton beat a pair of Spirit defenders and stuffed the puck past Saginaw goaltender Andrew Oke. The goal was ultimately challenged by the Spirit and waved off due to goalie interference.
Moose Jaw would eventually get on the board at 7:08 as Jagger Firkus skated into the Saginaw zone and beat Oke with a backhand that handcuffed the Spirit netminder stick side.
Saginaw took the lead 1:53 into the second period as Braden Hache beat Unger with a shot from the top of the left circle that deflected off a Moose Jaw stick.
Just under two minutes later, Owen Beck took a pass in the right circle and beat Unger high glove side.
Lincoln Moore made it a 4-1 game at 9:05 as he beat Unger from the bottom of the left circle on a one-timer after a pass from Hay.
Saginaw took a 5-1 lead as Hay skated into the slot and took a pass from Moore before beating Unger stick side at 11:22.
Sebastien Gervais capped off the second period scoring with 5:36 to go in the frame as he scored on a loose puck in the crease after Unger made the initial save on Rodwin Dionicio from the point on the play.
Saginaw made it a 7-1 game 70 seconds into the third period as Dionicio beat Unger with a shot from the slot glove side after a neutral zone turnover by Moose Jaw.
Hay had two goals and two assists for the Spirit in the victory while Dionicio also had a four-point night with a goal and three assists.
Gervais and Moore added a goal and two assists each for Saginaw.
Oke made 23 saves in the victory,
Due to an equipment issue for Oke, Nolan Lalonde saw a short stint in goal for the Spirit in the second period and stopped the lone shot he faced.
Unger stopped 30 shots for the Warriors.
Moose Jaw got into the semifinal thanks to a win over the Quebec Maritimes Hockey League’s Drummondville Voltigeurs on Tuesday night in the final game of the round robin for both clubs.
Game Notes
Lines
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
Moose
Jaw
Martin
Rysavy-Brayden Yager-Jagger Firkus
Lynden
Lakovic-Matthew Savoie-Atley Calvert
Ethan
Semeniuk-Brayden Schuurman-Rilen Kovacevic
Pavel
McKenzie-Owen Berge-Ethan Hughes
Denton Mateychuk-Kalem
Parker
Lucas
Brenton-Cosmo Wilson
|Aiden
Ziprick-Vojtech Port
Jackson
Unger
Dimitri
Fortin
Scratches
Saginaw – Kaleb Papineau, Josh Glavin, Graydon Jones, Carson Harmer, Liam Storch, P.J. Forgione, Jacob Cloutier, Aidan Castle
Moose Jaw – Evan May, Landen McFadden, Noah Degenstein, Brady Ness, Connor Schmidt, Max Finley
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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
Moose
Jaw vs. Drummondville – May 28, 2024
London
vs. Saginaw – May 29, 2024
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