For two CHL teams featuring Devils prospects, tonight was big. Jocktan Chainey’s Halifax Mooseheads were up three games to one to the Drummondville Voltigeurs with game five coming tonight. They could finish out their series while another Devils prospect’s team was fighting for their lives. Ty Smith and the Spokane Chiefs come into tonight down three games to one with the Vancouver Giants on the verge of taking them out.
First to the QMJHL game in Drummondville at the Centre Marcel Dionne where it was a back-and-forth contest all night.
The Voltigeurs got on the board first when Pavel Koltygin scored 13:11 into the first. Cedric Desruisseaux added another with 45 seconds to go in the period to make it 2-0 Drummonville. That goal was on the power play as Arnaud Durandeau had taken an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.
But if the first belonged to the Voltigeurs, the second was all Mooseheads. Durandeau scored at 13:07 to redeem himself and cut the lead in half at 2-1. Then, 2:12 later, Maxim Trepanier scored his fifth of the playoffs to knot the game at two. And that took us to the third period.
With Drummondville with their backs to the wall, it was Joseph Veleno (10:56 to make it 3-2) and Pierre-Olivier Joseph (13:31 on the power play to make it 4-2) who came to the rescue. Maxime Comtois finished things off with a goal at 18:32 of the third to make it 5-2. Remy Anglehart threw one in on the power play with 31 seconds to go for good measure, making it 6-2 and sending the series to a game six.
The goalie stats saw Halifax’s Alexis Gravel stopping 36 shots of the 42 he saw. Drummondville’s Anthony Morrone saw significantly less rubber, turning aside 23 of 25 shots.
The power play played a big role in this game with the Mooseheads going zero for their three chances while the Voltigeurs were 3-for-6. The game also ended with a game misconduct to Halifax’s Antoine Morand along with a roughing minor to Jarrett Baker of the Voltigeurs.
Jocktan Chainey ended the game with an even plus/minus and two hits as his stat line.
Game six will take place in Halifax at 3 PM ET on Sunday, the 28th.
Taking a short detour to the Dow Event Center in Saginaw, Michigan where the Saginaw Spirit had a chance to finish off the Guelph Storm up, you guessed it, three games to one. The Ottawa 67’s and Mitchell Hoelscher will, however have to wait at least one more game to find out who they are playing for the OHL championship as the Storm blanked the Spirit 4-0 to force a game six. That game will also be played on Sunday.
And now, the final destination of our CHL tour for today, Langley, BC and the Spokane Chiefs down three games to one to the Vancouver Giants.
And special teams would play a role early for the Giants. Jadon Joseph was called for cross-checking at the 15:50 mark of the first, putting Vancouver on the penalty kill early. However, this was not a problem for the Giants as Bowen Byram scored a short-handed goal at 16:42 to make it 1-0.
At 18:17 of the first, Spokane’s Noah King went off for two minutes (cross-checking) and Justin Sourdif capitalized on this one, scoring his second goal of the playoffs from Dylan Plouffe and Byram at 19:22. The Giants had a 2-0 lead as the first period came to a close.
Vancouver would also begin the second period on the power play as the Chiefs’ Eli Zummack was collared for high-sticking with 29 seconds left in the first. Spokane would kill that one off, however.
The scoring stayed the same until the 4:22 mark of the third when the Chiefs finally got on the board, with Jaret Anderson-Dolan potting one on the power play. Ty Smith picked up the primary assist on that goal while Zummack had the secondary. That cut the lead in half in favor of Vancouver until the 4:43 mark when the Giants’ Brayden Watts put his fifth of playoffs behind Spokane goalie Bailey Brkin. That restored the two goal lead for Vancouver. That flurry of activity took exactly 21 seconds to put us right back to where we were before.
And that would take us to the end of the game. Spokane pulled Brkin for the extra attacker with about 3:30 to go and managed a goal at 18:13 by Ethan McIndoe. But it was too little too late. Vancouver held on for the 3-2 victory and the 4-1 series win.
Brkin ended up making 29 saves on 32 Vancouver shots while David Tendeck made 27 saves on 28 Spokane shots en route to being named the game’s first star. Both teams were 1-for-4 on the power play.
Ty Smith’s game stats had him with the assist for a point, an even plus/minus and two shots on goal. He finished the playoffs with one goal and nine assists for ten points, a plus-4 rating, six penalty minutes, 36 shots on goal and 0-for-1 in the faceoff circle. He ended the postseason at a 0.60 point-per-game tick.
Vancouver will now go on to face the winner of the Prince Albert Raiders-Edmonton Oil Kings series, where Prince Albert holds a 3-2 series lead, for the WHL championship.
Tomorrow we will have the U18 World Championship semifinal between the USA and Russia for you right here.