Memorial Cup Notebook: Tiebreaker set for Thursday

QUEBEC – Their opening two games were a struggle but the Rimouski Oceanic came through in the clutch on Wednesday night at the 2015 MasterCard Memorial Cup.

Needing a win to keep their tournament hopes alive, the Quebec League champions beat the host-Quebec Remparts 4-0 Wednesday to earn a spot in Thursday’s tie-breaker game where the two teams will meet again.

Wednesday’s win came short of giving the Oceanic an automatic spot in the semi-final on Friday night. In order to avoid the tie-breaker, the Oceanic needed to win by an 8-0 score.

Regardless, the Oceanic recovered after a slow start to the tournament, which left the team with an 0-2 record and in need of a win in order to stay alive at the event.

“Tonight we had fun on the ice,” said Oceanic Defenceman Samuel Morin. “We enjoyed it. We’re at the Memorial Cup. We have a lot of pressure and in the first two games we were stressed but tonight we enjoyed it and we had fun. It was a good game for us.”

The Oceanic chased Remparts starting goaltender Zach Fucale from the game with four goals on 25 shots.

“As a goalie, it’s really frustrating (to be pulled),” said Remparts forward Marc-Olivier Roy as Fucale did not address the media. “He talked to us and he wasn’t happy about that (being pulled). (Thursday) we have to play for every one of us and play for him too because he’s played a lot of good games in this tournament.”

Michael Joly had a goal and three assists for Rimouski while Justin Samson, Christopher Clapperton and Alexis Loiseau also scored for the Oceanic ahead of Fucale’s departure from the Remparts net.

Callum Booth came in and stopped 17 shots the rest of the way for the Remparts.

“We need to refocus,” Morin said. “We’re going to play against (the Remparts) again Thursday and they’re going to be hungry and they’re going to be ready for the game. We need to refocus and forget about this game.

The tournament continues with the tie-breaker game on Thursday with the winner advancing to Friday’s semi-final against the Western League’s Kelowna Rockets.

This also marks the first time since 1986 that two teams from the same league have played back-to-back games involving the last game of the round robin and the tie-breaker game.

2015 also marks the first time in tournament history that three teams have finished with 1-2 records after the round robin.

The semi-final winner will face the Oshawa Generals in the tournament final on Sunday evening.

(Photo: Le Colisee Pepsi during the final round robin game of the 2015 MasterCard Memorial Cup. Aaron Bell/CHLImages)

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OTHER GAMES

May 22: Quebec vs. Kelowna
May 23: Oshawa vs. Rimouski
May 24: Oshawa vs. Quebec
May 25: Kelowna vs. Rimouski
May 26: Kelowna vs. Oshawa