The Oshawa Generals, Ontario Hockey League team of Martin Brodeur’s son, Jeremy, are unbeaten in the 2015 Memorial Cup round robin tournament so far.
They opened the Canadian Hockey League championship on May 23 with a game against Quebec Major Junior Hockey League champion Rimouski Oceanic. Oshawa’s Tobias Lindberg opened the scoring just 4:07 into the first period off an assist from Michael McCarron when Lindberg put one in from the side of the crease. Roughly five minutes later, Michael Dal Colle scored from the high slot for Oshawa giving the Generals a 2-0 lead. Matt Mistele and Mitchell Vande Sompel had the assists on the goal.
Rimouski would score the next two as Tyler Boland scored from the slot at 15:26 of the first with Andrew Picco and Anthony Chapados getting the helpers. Less than a minute later, Alexis Loiseau tied things up when he jammed one in on the side of the net unassisted.
With the score tied 2-2 going into the second frame, the OHL champs looked to regain the upper hand. They did so when Stephen Desrocher scored at 18:33 with an assist to Cole Cassels to pull ahead 3-2.
The third period began with Oceanic tying things up once more when Jan Kostalek, from Christopher Clapperton and Frederik Gauthier, scored on the power play in the high slot, beating goaltender Ken Appleby. The stage was now set for a hectic finish. The game winner came off the stick of Oshawa’s Hunter Smith from nearly the same spot as Lindberg’s goal way back in the first period. The assist went to Bradley Latour.
The team returned to the Colisee Pepsi in Quebec City on May 24 for a game against the host and QMJHL team Quebec Remparts. This game would also come down to the wire for the Generals, but this game would take almost a full extra period to play to finish things.
The Generals once again got the scoring started when Michael McCarron scored off assists to Vande Sompel and Dal Colle at 2:18 of the first period. About three minutes later at 5:43, Quebec’s Raphael Maheux scored on Appleby from the bottom of the right faceoff circle. The assists went to Anthony Duclair and Ryan Graves. Dal Colle finished out the scoring in the first when he put Oshawa ahead 2-1 with an assist from McCarron.
The game continued its back-and-forth nature when the Remparts tied things 2:45 into the second. Graves scored from just inside the blueline from Marc-Olivier Roy and Vladimir Tkachev.
There were two power play goals in the game, one for each team, and they both came in the third stanza. At 2:34 of the third, Dakota Mermis scored from almost the same place as Grave’s goal in the second to give the Generals a 3-2 lead. He got help from Lindberg and Desrocher. The first power play goal came just minutes later at 5:39 when Dmytro Timashov scored with the extra attacker from a bad angle at the goal line, from Roy and Nikolas Brouiliard. This tied the game at three.
Quebec would briefly take the lead in the third when Timashov got his second of the game at 8:48 from the bottom of the right faceoff circle. The assists went to Adam Erne and Kurt Etchegary. The Remparts kept the lead until Quebec took a penalty with about four minutes left in regulation. It was on this power play that Lindberg scored from Cassels and Dal Colle to tie the game.
Oshawa now had the momentum as the game headed into overtime, but it took almost the entire extra session to declare a winner. At 18:07, with about two minutes left, Desrocher scored the game winner from the left circle hash marks off an assist from Cassels. The Generals now had two wins in two games in the Memorial Cup tournament. Michael Dal Colle leads the team and all scorers in the Memorial Cup with four points.
Next up for Oshawa are the champions from the west, the Kelowna Rockets on May 26. Although Jeremy Brodeur has not gotten any playing time in the round robin yet, he is still a capable backup who, should the Generals win the Memorial Cup, could call himself a champion.