(Saginaw) Hunter Haight scored two goals, including the winning goal in the third period, and the Saginaw Spirit defeated the Drummondville Voltigeurs 4-3 on Sunday evening at the Memorial Cup.
After taking a 2-0 lead, the Voltigeurs conceded two goals in the second period. The Spirit scored four of the last five goals of the match.
The head coach of the Voltigeurs, Sylvain Favreau, mentioned that he did not like his players’ second period.
“We lost our momentum,” he analyzed. Puck management was lacking at times. We had a relaxation. Did we deserve better? I think so, but we made two costly mistakes and that cost us the game. »
With their second victory in as many matches, the Spirit at least assured themselves of a place in the semi-finals.
Alex Christopoulos and Nic Sima also scored in the victory. Andrew Oke stopped 21 shots.
Luke Woodworth, Peter Repcik and Justin Côté scored the goals for the Voltigeurs, who saw Riley Mercer block 27 shots.
Côté considered that his team had a good match, but like his coach, the mistakes made by the Voltigeurs were costly.
“It’s a team that is very good offensively,” said Côté. We need to improve this aspect of our game [les erreurs]. I have confidence in our group. »
Mercer was alert for the Voltigeurs by making two saves in the first two minutes of play, while the Spirit applied pressure from the start.
Moments later, Joey Willis redirected a shot toward the net, but the puck hit the post to Mercer’s left.
Alexis Gendron got a golden opportunity for the Voltigeurs, he who was alone in the slot. The Voltigeurs forward wanted to push the puck towards an abandoned cage, while the goalie was shifted to his left, but he missed the target.
Woodworth opened the scoring after nine minutes of play for the Voltigeurs. Ethan Gauthier pushed his way to the blue line for a two-on-one chance and fed the puck to Woodworth, who beat the goalie between the pads.
The Voltigeurs captain scored his team’s first goal this year at the Memorial Cup, after a 4-0 defeat the day before against the London Knights.
With less than five minutes remaining in the first period, Montreal Canadian prospect Owen Beck seemed stunned following contact behind the net with Voltigeurs defenseman Vsevolod Komarov. It was ultimately more fear than harm, since Beck remained in the encounter.
On the power play, a point shot bounced off the boards and back in front of the net, allowing Repcik to push the puck into the back of the net with 2:26 remaining to make it 2-0.
The Spirit fired six shots after the Voltigeurs’ second goal, but Mercer closed the door on each occasion and his team led 2-0 after 20 minutes of play.
“I really liked our first period,” Favreau said. We were very good and played according to our identity and our structure. »
The Spirit finally managed to beat Mercer at 12:04 of the second period. While the Voltigeurs had a delayed penalty, Christopoulos cut towards the center and shot from afar, near the point, while traffic was heavy. He beat the goalkeeper into the top of the net.
Haight tied the score less than four minutes later. Michael Misa served him a nice pass and Haight, who was coming towards the goalkeeper’s semi-circle, escaped his coverage to thread the needle.
Côté gave the Voltigeurs the lead again with 45 seconds left in the middle period, with the help of a good shot from the blue line on the power play.
The Spirit was quick to bring everyone back to square one in the next engagement. The tournament host team made a quick restart and Sima recovered a rebound to beat Mercer at 5:54 of play.
Taking advantage of its first power play of the game, the Spirit found the back of the net and took the lead for the first time, at 12:16 of play. Haight scored his second goal of the game.
The Spirit then resisted the Voltigeurs’ final push at the end of the match and won.