Oceanic and Spitfires Play in Tie-Breaker Thursday
Rimouski, QC – The Rimouski Oceanic and Windsor Spitfires are set to drop the puck on what should be another exciting battle Thursday night at 7:00 pm in the tie-breaker game at the 2009 MasterCard Memorial Cup. The game can be seen live on Rogers Sportsnet and RDS.
After six tournament round-robin games, the Oceanic and Spitfires share identical records of 1-2 behind the Drummondville Voltigeurs and Kelowna Rockets with records of 2-1. The Spitfires managed to stay alive in the tournament when they beat the Rockets 2-1 Tuesday night. The Oceanic beat the Spitfires 5-4 when the two teams met on Sunday. Because of the win the Oceanic will be the home team in tonight’s game.
The Oceanic are coming off a heartbreaking 3-2 overtime loss to the Voltigeurs Wednesday night. They will look to Marc-Andre Bourdon to continue his offensive play. In three games the defenceman leads the club in tournament points with four assists, three of which he registered against the Spitfires. Patrice Cormier and Luca Cunti have elevated their play as of late, both with two goals in three games.
The Spitfires have been led offensively by Adam Henrique and Taylor Hall. Henrique has tallied two goals and two assists for four points in three games, while Hall has one goal and three assists, two of which he recorded against the Oceanic. Hall sparked the offense on Tuesday with a goal and an assist as first star of the 2-1 in Wednesday over the Rockets.
The Spitfires outshot the Oceanic 39-25 in the round-robin game that saw seven goals scored in the second period. Special teams have not been strengths for either team heading into tonight with each team scoring just two power play goals in three games. The Spitfires power play unit is operating at only 16.7% slightly ahead of the Oceanic at 14.3%.
Maxim Gougeon will start in goal for the Oceanic with a tournament goals-against-average of 3.41 and save percentage of .891. Across the ice will be Andrew Engelage for the Spitfires with a tournament goals-against-average of 2.88 and save percentage of .880.
The winner of the game tonight will face Drummondville Friday night in the tournament semi-final at 7:00 pm on Rogers Sportsnet and RDS. The loser will be eliminated.
The Spitfires held practice this morning with the Oceanic taking the morning off.
Photo by Aaron Bell/CHL