Guelph eliminated from Memorial Cup

KELOWNA, B.C. – The Ontario Hockey League’s Guelph Storm were eliminated from the Memorial Cup after falling 7-2 to the Gatineau Olympiques on Wednesday.

Guelph (0-3) was among the top five teams in scoring in the Canadian Hockey League, but managed only three goals in three games in the championship tournament. The Olympiques rattled off six unanswered goals Wednesday before the Storm could muster one.

Guillaume Labrecque and Nick Fugere each scored twice for Gatineau with Christian Laroche, Dominic D’Amour and Doug O’Brien also scoring in front of what started out as a full house at Prospera Place, but dwindled as the outcome became clear early.

Ryan Callahan and Brett Trudell replied for Guelph.

Gatineau goaltender David Tremblay stopped 16 of 18 shots for the victory. Although he wasn’t often challenged, the Philadelphia Flyers’ prospect needed a win to get his confidence back after Monday’s game in which he was pulled after two shots in a 4-1 loss to the host Kelowna Rockets.

The Rockets (2-0) meet the Western Hockey League champion Medicine Hat Tigers (1-1) in the final round robin game today.

A Kelowna victory would send the Rockets to Sunday’s final. Gatineau and Medicine Hat would meet in Saturday’s semifinal with the winner advancing to the championship game.

A Medicine Hat victory would put the three remaining teams all at 2-1 and the playoff seedings would be determined by a goal-differential formula. The teams’ goals for would be added to goals against and divided by goals for.

Guelph was the first Ontario Hockey League team to go 0-3 at the Memorial Cup since the 1996 when the Storm went winless in Peterborough.

The Storm’s power play went 0 for 18 before scoring a power-play goal during the last five minutes of Wednesday’s game.