SAINT JOHN, NB – The St. John Sea Dogs are Memorial Cup champions again.
Considered a long chance at the start of the Canadian Hockey League championship due to a loss in the first round of the playoffs of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, host Sea Dogs defeated the Hamilton Bulldogs 6-3 in Wednesday’s championship game.
St. John scored twice in the first six minutes of both the first and second periods and rode the emotion of an extremely enthusiastic audience to win the championship for the second time in its 17-year history.
William Dufour, captain Vincent Sevini, Cam MacDonald, Josh Lawrence, Peter Reynolds and Riley Bezo scored for the Sea Dogs.
Mason McTavish with two goals and Jan Misak responded for the Bulldogs, who qualified for the final with a 4-3 overtime victory over Shauinigan in the semifinals on Monday.
Saint John goalkeeper Nikolas Hurtubise, acquired by Sea Dogs in the QMJHL trading deadline, scored his third victory in the tournament with 25 saves. Marco Constantini of Hamilton stopped 21 of 26 shots in the loss.
The Sea Dogs also won the Memorial Cup in 2011, and their victory on Wednesday is the sixth time a QMJHL team has won the Memorial Cup in the last 10 tournaments.
Memorial Cup 2020 and 2021 events were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hamilton made his second appearance in the Memorial Cup after qualifying for the semifinals in 2018, where they were eliminated by Regina Pats.
The Sea Dogs defeated the Bulldogs 5-3 in the opening match of the tournament and used the same scenario on Wednesday, scoring early.
Sevini received a signal from the perspective of Toronto Maple Leafs William Villeneuve and his explosion hit the stick of Arbert Jackage from Hamilton and passed Constantini for 2:35 in the game.
A little over three minutes later, Villeneuve made another smooth move on the starboard side and hit MacDonald in the slot. He made no mistake when he struck fast to beat Constantini at 5:47.
McTavish won his fifth leg of the tournament when he redirected Nathan Staios’ shot past Hurtubise at 7:45 to calm the crowd and give Hamilton the much-needed injection to attack.
Bezo – a striker from Rothesay, NB, who started attending the Sea Dogs games as a five-year-old boy – patiently held the puck when pushing down from the right side before connecting with a 4:41 wrist kick in the second.
Dufour, who led the tournament with seven goals, snatched information from Ryan Francis with 5:15 in the period to give the Sea Dogs a 4-1 lead.
Hamilton conceded several other golden chances, but came within two goals when Misak, the hero of Monday’s semi-final victory over Shauinigan, glanced at Gavin White and outscored Hertubis by nine seconds.
Lawrence put Sea Dogs on the edge of the title with a sharp kick in the top corner when Dufour passed in a powerful game 6:32 in the third.
McTavish added his second for the evening with the remaining 4:57 on the game clock.
Reynolds fired a puck into the empty space to support the victory at 18:43.
The Sea Dogs were eliminated in the first round of the QMJHL playoffs, and their four Memorial Cup races are the only games they have played since May 12.
It was another national title for Gardiner McDougall, a seven-time University Cup champion with the University of New Brunswick, who replaced Gordy Dwyer as head coach on May 22 and was credited with the renewed enthusiasm of the team, which went 47-17-1-3 in the regular season. season.
The Bulldogs finished 16-3 in the Ontario Hockey League playoffs to qualify for the Memorial Cup, but missed their first two games in the preliminary round to host a series of “do or die” competitions, starting with a 4-2 victory. against Edmonton Oil Kings.
In an exciting semifinal on Monday, Misak scored 10:08 after extra time to lift Hamilton over Shauinigan Cataracts 4-3.
However, the grueling cycle began and turned to the Bulldogs, as captain Colton Camerer has not played since the second game of the OHL final against Windsor. Many other Hamilton players, including Staois, the CHL defender of the year, are believed to be playing with injuries.
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