Saint John Sea Dogs win Memorial Cup over Hamilton Bulldogs

The Saint John Sea Canine are Memorial Cup champions as soon as once more.

Thought of an extended shot at first of the Canadian Hockey League championship as a result of a first-round loss within the Quebec Main Junior Hockey League playoffs, the host Sea Canine downed the Hamilton Bulldogs 6-3 in Wednesday’s championship sport.

Saint John scored twice within the first six minutes of each the primary and second durations and rode the emotion of a wildly enthusiastic sellout crowd to win the championship for the second time in its 17-year historical past.

William Dufour, captain Vincent Sevigny, Cam MacDonald, Josh Lawrence, Peter Reynolds and Riley Bezeau scored for the Sea Canine.

Mason McTavish, with two targets, and Jan Mysak answered for the Bulldogs, who superior to the ultimate with a 4-3 additional time victory over Shawinigan in Monday’s semifinal.

Saint John goaltender Nikolas Hurtubise, acquired by the Sea Canine on the QMJHL commerce deadline, posted his third victory of the match with 25 saves. Hamilton’s Marco Costantini stopped 21 of 26 pictures within the loss.

The Sea Canine additionally gained the Memorial Cup in 2011 and their win on Wednesday marks the sixth time a QMJHL crew has gained the Memorial Cup within the final 10 tournaments.

The 2020 and 2021 Memorial Cup occasions have been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hamilton was making its second Memorial Cup look after advancing to the 2018 semifinals the place they fell to the Regina Pats.

The Sea Canine defeated the Bulldogs 5-3 within the opening sport of the match and used the identical script Wednesday, scoring early.

Sevigny accepted a feed from Toronto Maple Leafs prospect William Villeneuve and his blast hit the stick of Hamilton’s Arber Xhekaj and whipped previous Costantini 2:35 into the sport.

Simply over three minutes later, Villeneuve made one other slick transfer on the precise aspect boards and hit MacDonald within the slot. He made no mistake when he wristed a fast shot to beat Costantini on the 5:47 mark.

McTavish picked up his fifth of the match when he redirected a Nathan Staios shot previous Hurtubise at 7:45 to calm the group and provides Hamilton a a lot wanted injection of offence.

Bezeau — a ahead from Rothesay, N.B., who began attending Sea Canine video games as a five-year-old boy — patiently held the puck on a rush down the precise aspect earlier than connecting on a wrist shot 4:41 into the second.

Dufour, who led the match with seven targets, ripped a feed from Ryan Francis 5:15 into the interval to present the Sea Canine a 4-1 lead.

Hamilton allowed a number of different golden possibilities however got here inside two targets when Mysak, the additional time hero in Monday’s semifinal win over Shawinigan, had a Gavin White shot look off him and previous Hurtubise with 9 seconds left within the interval.

Lawrence put the Sea Canine on the point of the title with a pointy shot to the highest nook on a feed from Dufour on an influence play 6:32 into the third.

McTavish added his second of the evening with 4:57 left on the sport clock.

Reynolds fired a puck into an empty to seal the win at 18:43.

The Sea Canine have been bounced within the opening spherical of the QMJHL playoffs and their 4 Memorial Cup contests are the one video games they’ve performed since Might 12.

It was one other nationwide title for Gardiner MacDougall, a seven time College Cup champion with the College of New Brunswick, who changed Gordie Dwyer as head coach on Might 22 and was credited for the revamped enthusiasm throughout the crew that went 47-17-1-3 within the common season.

The Bulldogs completed 16-3 within the Ontario Hockey League playoffs to advance to the Memorial Cup however dropped their first two video games of the preliminary spherical to arrange a sequence of do-or-die contests, beginning with a 4-2 victory in opposition to the Edmonton Oil Kings.

In an exciting semifinal on Monday, Mysak scored 10:08 into additional time to elevate Hamilton previous the Shawinigan Cataractes 4-3.

The gruelling run has taken its run on the Bulldogs, nonetheless, as captain Colton Kammerer has not performed because the second sport of the OHL remaining in opposition to Windsor. Many different Hamilton gamers, together with Staois, the CHL defenceman of the yr, have been believed to be taking part in with accidents.

This report by The Canadian Press was first revealed June 29, 2022.