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Halifax Mooseheads Advance to Memorial Cup Final

The Halifax Mooseheads have backed their way into the Memorial Cup final. They lost 4-3 tonight to the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies but, due to goal differential, they will go straight ahead to Sunday’s final with a bye. They will play the winner of the Rouyn-Noranda-Guelph Storm semifinal, which will be played on Friday.

The Huskies got on the board first despite Halifax dominating most of the first period. Fleix Bibeau was left all alone in front of the Mooseheads’ net and scored. All goals in the Memorial Cup tournament are reviewed in the situation room, but this one came under further review to make sure Rouyn-Noranda was onside prior to the goal being scored. They were and it was a good goal to give the Huskies the 1-0 lead.

On the second goal, scored by the Huskies, Peter Abbandonato lost his stick along the far boards, picked it up, got the puck and was able to make a nice pass to Joel Teasdale, who scored. This goal was also reviewed for offsides and was also deemed a good goal after a lengthy deliberation by the referees.

It was at this point that things were looking grim for the Halifax Mooseheads. If Rouyn-Noranda won by two or more goals, then Guelph would get a bye straight into the final.

But things changed drastically in the second period. Halifax scored three unanswered to take a 3-2 lead. The comeback began when Arnaud Durandeau backhanded a pass to Benoit-Olivier Groulx who shot and had his shot tipped by Rouyn-Noranda’s Noah Dobson into the Huskies’ net. That made it 2-1 Huskies.

The game was tied at two when Durandeau took a drop pass from Jared McIsaac, as Durandeau was trailing the play, to score.

Halifax then took the lead, getting the “home” (the Mooseheads were playing in their building, but were designated the visiting team) fans back into things. That go-ahead goal came when Antoine Morand, who had gone down the tunnel a few minutes earlier, but came back just as soon, took a centering pass from Keith Getson to score. The Mooseheads won the first faceoff in the Huskies’ zone on the power play and passed around the perimeter, finally getting it down low and to Morand. This goal came with less than a minute to go in the second and gave Halifax the 3-2 lead.

However, the Huskies are not the number one rated team in the CHL for nothing. They would stage a comeback of their own in the third period. Halfway through the period, William Rouleau took a bank pass off the boards through the neutral zone and used a nice shot to beat Halifax goaltender Alexis Gravel. This tied things at three as we strapped in for a bumpy finish.

With less than a minute to go in regulation, Jakub Lauko sniped one that beat Gravel to give Rouyn-Noranda the 4-3 lead. They would frantically try to get one more to force Halifax into the semifinal, but to no avail. The Mooseheads held on and backed into the final, which they will play on Sunday, to claim the Memorial Cup.

Abbandonato (Rouyn-Noranda) was named the game’s first star while Groulx of Halifax was the second, while Lauko of Rouyn-Noranda was the third star.

Gravel made 36 saves on 40 Huskies shots while Samuel Harvey made 24 saves on 27 Mooseheads shots. Jocktan Chainey was a minus-2 plus/minus with one shot on goal in the game.

The Memorial Cup final will come on Sunday with Halifax the home team against either Rouyn-Noranda or Guelph. We will have that for you then.

In other Devils CHL prospect news, Ty Smith is up for the award of CHL Defenseman of the Year at the CHL Awards this year. This was mentioned on this game’s broadcast on Sportsnet. Congratulations to him and good luck.

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USA Clinches Spot in Quarterfinals at Worlds

In one fell swoop, the American team at the IIHF World Hockey Championship got revenge on a foe for a loss earlier in the tournament and also punched their ticket to the next round, the quarterfinals. With a 3-1 win over Germany, the USA clinched a spot in the tournament semifinals and eliminated host country Slovakia from further competition. The Slovaks had upset the US in the first game of the tournament for both teams.

The Germans actually got off to a quick start, netting the first goal of the game when Frederik Tiffels potted one at 11:55 of the first from Leon Draisaitl.

But the Americans were quick to respond. Less than two minutes later at 13:47. James van Riemsdyk scored to tie the game. Clayton Keller and Alec Martinez had the assists, marking the first of two assists on the day for Martinez.

Following a scoreless, penalty-free second frame, Dylan Larkin gave the USA the lead when he scored 10:03 into the third period. Van Riemsdyk and Martinez had the assists, marking two points for both of them.

At 14:21 of the third, Germany took a bench minor for too many men on the ice and the US went on the power play. Jack Eichel scored with six seconds left on the man advantage to make it 3-1 USA, which was our final.

Cory Schneider made 24 saves on 25 German shots against while Mathias Niederberger was 26-for-29. Jack Hughes got limited playing time, just 9:19 of ice time over 14 shifts and was a minus-1 in that time.

The Americans finish off round-robin play on Tuesday against rival Canada.

In another game of interest to Devils fans, Finland defeated France by a score of 3-0.

The Finns got a goal 9:24 into the game from Joel Kiviranta, one in the second at 1:51 from Niko Mikkola and one 12:31 into the third period from Jere Sallinen to take the game 3-0.

\Florian Hardy made 44 saves on 47 shots for France while Kevin Lankinen turned aside all 21 French shots that he saw. Kaapo Kakko had four shots on goal and was a plus-1 plus/minus in 14:30 of time on ice over 22 shifts.

Finland plays next on Tuesday against Germany.

The final game of the day at the Worlds showed that three was the magic number today as Switzerland lost to Russia 3-0.

Russia scored at 3:36 into the first (Artyom Anisimov) to make it 1-0. In the second period, Nico Hischier took a delay of game penalty at 5:02 which led to Nikita Kucherov scoring at 6:20 to make it 2-0. Kucherov scored again 15:20 into the third for his second goal of the game to make it 3-0 Russia. Anisimov also had the primary assist on Kucherov’s second goal, which gave him two points in the game.

The Swiss would pull goalie Leonardo Genoni for an extra attacker late in the third period, but to no avail. The Russians came away with the 3-0 victory.

Genoni made 31 saves on 34 shots against while Russia’s Alexander Georgiev stopped all 31 he saw. Nico had the two penalty minutes plus four shots on goal and a minus-1 plus/minus in 16:51 of ice time (24 shifts).

The Swiss play Czech Republic on Tuesday in their next game.

Tomorrow’s slate includes two games for us here on the blog. Sweden will take on Latvia and Canada will do battle with Denmark.

We now move back to Nova Scotia for the 2019 Memorial Cup where Jocktan Chainey and the Halifax Mooseheads took on the champions of the Ontario Hockey League, the Guelph Storm. The Mooseheads won this one 4-2 to improve to 2-0 in the Memorial Cup round-robin stage.

Antoine Morand got Halifax on the board first 5:10 into the first period. Chainey had the primary assist on a goal that would give them the 1-0 lead. They would hold that 1-0 lead until, with just 50 seconds to go in the frame, Sean Durzi scored for Guelph to tie it going into the first intermission.

In the second period, Halifax jumped out to a two goal lead when Raphael Lavoie scored shorthanded at 6:48 and Maxim Trepanier scored at even strength at 10:34. It was now 3-1 Mooseheads as we headed off to the third period.

Just 1:07 in to that period, Durzi scored his second of the night to make it 3-2 Halifax That goal came on the power play and, in fact, while the Mooseheads were 0-for-6 on the man advantage, Guelph did capitalize once, going 1-for-6.

At 7:20, Samuel Asselin would score for the Mooseheads to make it 4-2 and restore the two goal lead. But a late penalty to Jared McIsaac of Halifax would put the Storm on the power play to end the game. Luckily for the Mooseheads, they would kill that off and go on to preserve the 4-2 win.

The stars of the game were Halifax goalie Alexis Gravel (first), Nick Suzuki of Guelph (second) and Morand of Halifax (third). Gravel made 33 saves on 35 Storm shots. Guelph goalie Anthony Popovich stopped 38 of 42 Halifax shots.

Chainey had a stat line of the assist for a point, a plus-1 plus/minus and six shots on goal.

Halifax next plays on Wednesday in a rematch of the QMJHL Final against the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies. We will have that for you right here then.