 |
| Photo courtesy Vincent Ethier/CHL |
The Medicine Hat Tigers will have a few days off before returning to action at the 2025 Memorial Cup in Rimouski, Que.
The Western Hockey League club will play on the final day of the Canadian Hockey League season after earning a spot in the tournament final on Tuesday night.
The Tigers earned the championship game berth thanks to a 3-1 win over the Ontario Hockey League-champion London Knights in a game that wasn’t easy.
Tigers coach Willie Desjardins said he felt the Knights “probably outplayed us tonight.”
“They started quick,” Desjardins added saying the difference in the game was Medicine Hat goaltender Harrison Meneghin.
“He was the difference for us,” Desjardins said. “He was outstanding in net for us. Maybe a bit more than outstanding.”
Knights coach Dale Hunter called the game “a battle.”
Hunter also spoke of Medicine Hat’s depth coming through after the Tigers top players were held at bay offensively.
“We all have out top end guys and they can’t do it every night,” Hunter said. “It takes a role player to come up.”
The Knights got on the board first as Kasper Halttunen deflected a point shot from Sam Dickinson past Meneghin 3:34 into the contest.
Medicine Hat got on the board in the second period after a point shot from Tanner Molendyck deflected to Ethan Neutens at the bottom of the left circle and the latter beat Knights goaltender Austin Elliott at 5:11.
Mathew Ward made it a 2-1 game 1:17 into the third period as he grabbed a loose puck after coming out from behind the net and wrapped the puck past Elliott.
Ryder Ritchie capped off the scoring with an empty net goal with 11 seconds to go.
Meneghin made 35 saves for the Tigers while Elliot stopped 26 for the Knights.
The Knights will play the winner of Wednesday’s round robin finale between the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League clubs.
The host Rimouski Oceanic and QMJHL-champions, the Moncton Wildcats are set to play on Wednesday. The winner moves into the semifinal while the loser has their tournament come to an end.
Both teams enter Wednesday’s game with 0-2 records.
Lineups
Medicine
Hat
Gavin
McKenna-Oasiz Wiesblatt-Ryder Ritchie
Andrew
Basha-Cayden Lindstrom-Hunter St. Martin
Mathew
Ward-Misha Volotovskii-Ethan Neutens
Marcus
Pacheco-Schaeffer Gordon-Carroll-Liam Ruck
Tanner
Molendyk-Veeti Vaisanen
Jonas
Woo-Bryce Pickford
Niikopekka
Muhonen-Josh Van Mulligen
Harrison
Meneghin
Jodan
Switzer
Scratches – Kadon McCann, Tyson Moss, Carter Cunningham, Marcus Ruck
London
Easton Cowan-Sam O’Reilly-Blake
Montgomery
Denver Barkey-Jacob Julien-Landon Sim
Jesse Nurmi-William Nicholl-Kasper Halttunen
Ryder Boulton-Evan Van Gorp-Noah Read
Sam Dickinson-Henry Brzustewicz
Jared Woolley-Oliver Bonk
Adoni Fimis-Cam Allen
Austin Elliott
Aleksei Medvedev
Scratches – Rene Van Bommel, Noah Aboflan, Logan Hawery, Liam Spencer, P.J. Fagan II
Tournament
Results
Round Robin
May 23 – Medicine Hat 5, Rimouski 4
May 24 – London 3, Moncton 2 (OT)
May 25 – London
3, Rimouski 1
May 26 – Medicine
Hat 3, Moncton 1
No comments:
Post a Comment