Quebec wins, advances to Memorial Cup semifinal

Thursday, 05.28.2015 / 10:58 PM | NHL.com Staff

Jerome Verrier scored two goals to help the host Quebec Remparts defeat the Rimouski Oceanic 5-2 on Thursday in the tiebreaker game at the 2015 Memorial Cup at Pepsi Colisee in Quebec City.

Adam Erne (Tampa Bay Lightning) had a goal and an assist, and Anthony Duclair (Arizona Coyotes) and Marc-Olivier Roy (Edmonton Oilers) also scored. Goaltender Zachary Fucale (Montreal Canadiens) made 30 saves.

The Remparts play the Western Hockey League champion Kelowna Rockets in the semifinal game Friday. The winner will play the Oshawa Generals, champions of the Ontario Hockey League, in the championship game Sunday (7 p.m. ET; NHLN-US). The Remparts are trying to become the first host team to win the Memorial Cup since the Shawinigan Cataractes in 2012.

Quebec's win Thursday came one night after it lost 4-0 to Rimouski. The Oceanic also defeated Quebec in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League final, winning Game 7 in double overtime. This was the teams' ninth game in 24 days.

"We played a great series against Rimouski last week. That was still on our mind," Verrier said on Sportsnet. "We wanted to get them back. We did that tonight. Last game we didn't show up at all. Next night, step up right off the bat and played a really good game."

Samuel Morin (Philadelphia Flyers) and Jeremy Lepine scored for Rimouski. Goaltender Philippe Desrosiers (Dallas Stars) made 26 saves.

Lepine's goal, off a turnover by the Remparts' Vladimir Tkachev tied the game 2-2 at 16:07 of the second period. But 47 seconds later Desrosiers went behind his net to play a Quebec dump-in. Under pressure he tried banking the puck off the back of the goal. Erne got his stick on the puck, tipped it in front and scored into an empty net to give Quebec a 3-2 lead.

Quebec extended its lead with 40.3 seconds remaining in the second when Verrier, in front of the net, tipped in Massimo Carozza's pass out of the left corner of the Rimouski zone.

The Remparts added a final goal at 11:31 of the third period. Ryan Graves (New York Rangers) sent a long pass to Roy at the Oceanic blue line. Roy broke in alone and tried shoving a puck under Desrosiers. He made the save but left the puck loose in the crease. Desrosiers tried getting back to the puck but got his skate stuck behind Roy's. With the puck between his skates and his back to the net, Roy tapped the puck between his feet into the net.

Verrier opened the scoring, tipping in a shot by Graves at 17:19 of the first period for a power-play goal.

Morin tied the game with a slap shot from the right circle for a power-play goal at 2:32 of the second. But Duclair's snap shot from the slot put Quebec ahead 2-1 at 3:58.

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