Rebels Fall to Huskies 3-1 in MasterCard Memorial Cup Semi-Final
The 2016 MasterCard Memorial Cup Semi-Final took place in Red Deer, AB on Friday night as the host Red Deer Rebels battled the QMJHL Champion Rouyn-Noranda Huskies. Earlier in the tournament, Red Deer defeated Rouyn-Noranda by a score of 5-2 in round-robin play. This time around, the Huskies turned the tides as they edged the Rebels 3-1 to advance to the MasterCard Memorial Cup Final.
Rouyn-Noranda opened the scoring midway through the opening frame as Francis Perron tallied his first goal of the tournament on the power play. Martins Dzierkals then added to the lead as his backhand attempt from the slot found its way through the legs of Rebels’ goaltender Rylan Toth. The shots on goal favoured Rouyn-Noranda 15-11 heading into the second period.
The Huskies took advantage of another power play opportunity in the second period as Nikolas Brouillard notched his first goal of the tournament at the 5:04 mark of the frame. Red Deer continued to press hard for that first goal and they were finally rewarded with a power play goal from Luke Philp to send the sellout crowd at ENMAX Centrium into a frenzy. Haydn Fleury and Michael Spacek registered the assists on the goal.
Red Deer overcame a pair of penalties in the third period with successful penalty-kills and continued to press hard as they generated several scoring chances but ultimately could not capitalize and dropped a 3-1 decision. Huskies goaltender Chase Marchand made 36 saves while Rebels netminder Rylan Toth stopped 24 shots.
Rouyn-Noranda capitalized on the power play going 2/4 while Red Deer finished 1/3 on the night. Despite the loss, shots on goal favoured the Rebels 37-27.
As MasterCard Memorial Cup hosts, the tournament was brought back to Alberta for the first time in 42 years.
The Rouyn-Niranda Huskies will take on the OHL Champion London Knights in the MasterCard Memorial Cup Final on Sunday afternoon at 2:30pm MT/1:30pm PT.