Manitoba defeats British Columbia, will face Alberta in WHL Cup Final

Red Deer, Alta.- Rematch, anyone?

For a second straight year, Manitoba and Alberta will clash in the WHL Cup gold medal game.

Manitoba- the defending champion- sealed its berth in the Final with a  4-2 win over British Columbia on Saturday night.

Adding to the drama, this also marked Manitoba’s first win of the 2024 edition of the tournament, while British Columbia was dished its first loss.

GAME SUMMARY
PLAYER STATS
TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE

Despite coming in as underdogs, Manitoba broke the stalemate five minutes into the second period as Calum Brownlee’s (Swift Current Broncos / Winnipeg, Man.) long shot found its way through traffic and into the back of the British Columbia net.

The Keystone province doubled its lead early in the third period when Tyden Lafournaise (Lethbridge Hurricanes / Winnipeg, Man.) stole a puck in a low board battle and fed Graeme Pickering (Red Deer Rebels / St. Adolphe, Man.) for a long shot with Drayden Uhrina (Victoria Royals / Winnipeg, Man.) tipping it home.

Lafournaise lit the lamp himself with eight minutes remaining to add some more insurance.

Uhrina found his teammate with a laser pass from behind the British Columbia net, and Lafournaise made no mistake with a low wrister from the faceoff dot.

Tate Barnaby (Winnipeg, Man.) held Manitoba in the mix with a number of timely saves, including a point-blake stop on captain Koltin Herfst (Victoria Royals / Chilliwack, B.C.) late in the third period, though the British Columbians would break his shutout bid with a late tally from Eddy Spytz (Everett Silvertips / Victoria, B.C.).

Lafournaise picked up his second assist and third point of the night as he teed up Ludovic Perreault (Victoria Royals / Winnipeg, Man.) for the empty-netter. Herfst would manage to eke out another goal for British Columbia in a flurry of late activity, but Manitoba hung on for a 4-2 victory.

Between the pipes, Barnaby closed out the night with 46 saves on 48 shots, while Cash Christie (Medicine Hat Tigers, North Vancouver, B.C.) turned aside 16 of 19.

With one goal and two assists, Uhrina earned Player of the Game for Manitoba and Eddy Spytz picked up the recognition for B.C.

Manitoba will battle Alberta (2-2) for gold in Sunday’s WHL Cup Final at 1:00 p.m. MST.

British Columbia takes on Saskatchewan (2-2) in the third-place game at 10:15 a.m. at Red Deer’s Peavey Mart Centrium.

All games will be streamed for free at Watch.CHL.ca/WHL and tickets are available at the door.