Big Game Sunday for Oceanic and Spitfires
Rimouski, QC – The host Rimouski Oceanic and the OHL Champion Windsor Spitfires faceoff Sunday afternoon beginning at 4:30 pm on Rogers Sportsnet and RDS.
The stakes are certainly high for both clubs who enter the contest winless heading into day three of competition at the 2009 MasterCard Memorial Cup. The losing team today would face a must-win game later this week in hopes of forcing a tie-break scenario. The Oceanic dropped their opening game 4-1 to the WHL Champion Kelowna Rockets while the Spitfires lost a heartbreaker in overtime 3-2 to the QMJHL Champion Drummondville Voltigeurs.
Goaltender Maxim Gougeon was the top performer of the opening game for the Oceanic and was recognized as third star of the game making 38 saves. He will face a powerful Spitfires offence that led the OHL in goals scored with 311 during the regular season. In the Spitfires crease, goaltender Andrew Engelage will look to find the win column as well. He set a new OHL single season record with 46 wins this season, and helped the Spitfires allow a league-low 171 goals in 68 regular season games.
Philippe Cornet will look to energize the home Colisee crowd like he did in game one when he scored the lone goal for the host Oceanic squad. Cornet led the team in regular season scoring with 77 points including 29 goals and 48 assists in 63 games. Adam Henrique has the hot stick for the Spitfires coming off a two-goal performance Saturday afternoon. The Spitfires’ regular season and playoff leading scorer Taylor Hall was also quick Saturday and created a lot of offensive chances that his team will hope to capitalize on this afternoon.
The game also features a pair of defenders that led their respective leagues in scoring this season but were held pointless in their opening games. Sebastien Piche for the Oceanic scored 23 goals and 49 assists for 72 points in 62 games from the point, while the Spitfires were anchored on defence by Ryan Ellis with 22 goals and 67 assists for 89 points in 57 games to lead all OHL defencemen.
Rimouski head coaches Clement Jodoin and Windsor head coach Bob Boughner each cancelled their Sunday morning practices.
Photo by Aaron Bell/CHL