Medicine Hat claims first MC victory
KELOWNA, B.C. — The Medicine Hat Tigers won their first game of the Memorial Cup and kept their hopes for a title alive with a 2-1 win over the Guelph Storm on Tuesday.
Clarke MacArthur and Christ St. Jacques gave the Western Hockey League champion Tigers a 2-0 lead in front of 6,127 at Prospera Place before Matt Ryan replied for Guelph with just more than a minute remaining.
Medicine Hat (1-1) will meet the host Kelowna Rockets (2-0) on Thursday in a game from which the winner will bypass Saturday’s semifinal and earn a berth into Sunday’s final.
In the last 11 Canadian Hockey League championships, the team that has earned the bye to the final has won the Memorial Cup 10 times.
The Storm (0-2) play their final round-robin game today when they face the Gatineau Olympiques (1-1).
Guelph needs a victory to both avoid elimination from the tournament and get into a tiebreaker game Friday.
The second- and third-place teams after the round robin meet in Saturday’s semifinal. A tie for third forces a tiebreaker game.
Guelph has scored once in two games, including its opening round 1-0 loss to Kelowna, thanks in part to a power-play that has been unsuccessful in 14 chances.
The Tigers were the better-skating team Tuesday and tougher on the puck.
When the Storm did get a chance from in close, Tigers goaltender Kevin Nastiuk, a Carolina Hurricanes draft pick, shut them down.
Ryan’s goal with 64 seconds remaining ruined Nastiuk’s shutout bid and prevented the Storm from suffering back-to-back shutouts here. Guelph was held scoreless only once this season prior to the Memorial Cup.
Guelph was stymied on two consecutive scoring chances in the third period and Medicine Hat immediately turned the puck up ice and scored on a two-on-one with St. Jacques converting a pass from MacArthur at 6:13.
MacArthur, a Buffalo Sabres draft pick, backhanded a rebound off the pad of Storm goaltender Adam Dennis for a goal 26 seconds into the second period.
Scoring first in the game has been a key so far in the tournament and the Storm were unable to do that despite four straight power-play opportunities in first 15 minutes of the game.
Notes
Medicine Hat went 2-1 against Kelowna during the regular season … . Former NHL player Wendel Clark dropped the ceremonial puck prior to the game … The Canadian Hockey League will hand out its awards today. Rimouski forward Sidney Crosby, Red Deer goaltender Cam Ward and Ottawa forward Corey Locke are finalists for most valuable player.