Foreurs outlast Oil Kings in 2OT win
Tuesday May 20, 2014
The Val-d’Or Foreurs (2-1) have guaranteed themselves a spot in Friday’s 2014 MasterCard Memorial Cup Semi-Final with a 4-3 double overtime win against the Edmonton Oil Kings (1-2) at the Budweiser Gardens, in London, ON.
Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Antoine Bibeau put together another outstanding performance between the pipes with 47 saves, and Anthony Richard scored the game-winner after 81:15 of hockey ending the sixth longest game in MasterCard Memorial Cup history.
“Reinhart missed the puck at the blue line, I got my speed on the breakaway, and I put it five hole,” commented Richard on the game-winner.
Early on in the game the momentum was on the Oil Kings’ side, as forward Reid Petryk opened the scoring at the 6:22 mark of the first period finishing a nice pass from Curtis Lazar to put the Oil Kings up 1-0.
Lazar would notch his second point of the night less than three minutes later with an easy tap in on the power play to extend his club’s leads to two.
Val-d’Or would cut into the lead late in the first period as New York Rangers draft pick, Ryan Graves would fire a wrist shot past Tristan Jarry to make it 2-1.
At 9:38 of the second, Val-d’OR forward Pierre-Maxime Poudrier would take advantage of a broken stick and a lucky bounce to send him in on the breakaway, shorthanded, beating Jarry to tie the game at two.
Bibeau’s efforts kept the Foreurs in the game as long as possible, being outshot 29-14 after two periods, but 5:46 into the third period Henrik Samuelsson, a Phoenix Coyotes prospect, would finally beat Bibeau to put the Oil King ahead 3-2.
Foreurs’ captain Samuel Henley, on only his clubs second shot of the third period, would tie the game for Val-d’Or at 15:39 of the third and send the game to overtime.
“Again we had a slow start,” said Val-d’Or Head Coach Mario Durocher. “I think every period we play better and better, so hopefully we’ll be able to do the same thing for the rest of the tournament.”
For the Oil Kings, they now await their fate pending the outcome of Wednesday’s final round-robin contest between the London Knights and the Guelph Storm.
“You never want to be here but I think we’ve made the best of it so far and we always respond,” said New York Islanders draft pick and Oil Kings captain Griffin Reinhart. “Whether London or Guelph wins we’re going to come out strong and try to win from here on out and every game is a game 7 now.”
A Knights’ win forces a Tiebreaker game against the Oil Kings on Thursday, whereas a Storm win secures the WHL champions a place in the Semi-Final in a rematch against the Foreurs on Friday.
Tonight marked the second double overtime game to be played in London at the MasterCard Memorial Cup with the last one played May 22, 2005, when the Ottawa 67’s defeated the Kelowna Rockets after 95:41 of play.
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