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| The Medicine Hat Tigers improved to 2-0 on Monday at the 2025 Memorial Cup in Rimouski, Que. Photo courtesy Vincent Ethier/CHL |
Regardless of it being the biggest tournament of the season for the team, Monday’s game result at the 2025 Memorial Cup in Rimouski, Que. took a backseat for the Moncton Wildcats.
Moncton coach Gardiner MacDougall told reporters after Moncton’s 3-1 loss to the Medicine Hat Tigers that his son Taylor, the general manager of the club, received news that his father-in-law died earlier in the day after arriving in Rimouski.
MacDougall called it “the hardest game I’ve ever had to coach.”
The elder MacDougall said that his son received the news about 20 minutes before puck drop and he found out about five minutes before the game.
“Pat Buckley was an unbelievable sportsman,” MacDougall said. “A top-notch golfer. A former university hockey player. He was a second father to Taylor.”
Speaking to the media after the game, Medicine Hat coach Willie Desjardins began by saying “I’d like to pass along our condolences to the MacDougall family. That’s a terrible way to have to go into a game. You can’t say words for how hard that would be.”
The Tigers were pleased with the way they started the game, but Desjardin said there were times when Moncton made things tough.
Desjardins also said “our team played well and we’re certainly happy to get the win.
For the Wildcats, the opening minutes of the contest saw the Tigers take it to the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League champs.
“The first seven minutes, we were on our heels,” MacDougall said. “We adapted and got out of the period down one. Our goaltender (Mathis Rousseau) was our best player.”
“We fed into how they want to play,” MacDougall added. “Full credit to (Medicine Hat’s) victory.”
Medicine Hat opened the scoring as Ryder Ritchie beat Moncton goaltender Mathis Rousseau on a cross-slot pass from Oasiz Wiesblatt 4:24 into the game. The goal came moments after Tigers forward Gavin McKenna missed the net on a breakaway.
Ritchie picked up his second goal of the night, and third of the tournament midway through the second period to make it a 2-0 game. Ritchie beat Rousseau high short side on a one-timer from the right faceoff circle off a pass from Andrew Basha on the power play at 9:42.
In the third period, Dyllan Gill got Moncton on the board 31 seconds into the frame as his shot from the right point hit blueliner Tanner Molendyk and deflected past Harrison Meneghin to make it a 2-1 game.
McKenna sealed the win with 7.3 seconds to go, scoring on an empty net to make it 3-1 Medicine Hat.
Ritchie finished the night with two goals and an assist for the Tigers while McKenna had one of each.
Meneghin stopped 21 shots in the victory.
Rousseau made 38 saves for Moncton.
Medicine Hat will take a record of 2-0 into their final round robin game, which is Tuesday night against the London Knights. The Knights sit at 2-0.
Moncton will face the host team, the Rimouski Oceanic, on Wednesday night to wrap up round robin play. Moncton has a record of 0-2 while the Oceanic are also 0-2 heading into the game.
Lineups
Medicine
Hat
Gavin
McKenna-Oasiz Wiesblatt-Ryder Ritchie
Andrew
Basha-Cayden Lindstrom-Hunter St. Martin
Mathew
Ward-Misha Volotovskii-Ethan Neutens
Kadon
McCann-Schaeffer Gordon-Carroll-Liam Ruck
Tanner
Molendyk-Veeti Vaisanen
Jonas
Woo-Bryce Pickford
Niikopekka
Muhonen-Josh Van Mulligen
Harrison
Meneghin
Jodan Switzer
Scratches – Tyson Moss, Carter Cunningham, Marcus Ruck, Marcus Pacheco
Moncton
Juraj
Pekarcik-Caleb Desnoyers-Julius Sumpf
Maxime
Cote-Markus Vidicek-Alex Mercier
Preston
Lounsbury-Gabe Smith-Vincent Collard
Pier-Etienne
Cloutier-Simon Binkley-Logan Crosby
Etienne
Morin-Dylan MacKinnon
Loke
Johansson-Dyllan Gill
Adam Fortier-Gendron-Natan
Grenier
Mathis
Rousseau
Rudy
Guimond
Scratches –
Simon Mullen, Riley Sampson, Cooper Cormier
Tournament Results
Round Robin
May 23 – Medicine Hat 5, Rimouski 4
May 24 – London 3, Moncton 2 (OT)
May 25 – London
3, Rimouski 1
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