With the final of the 100th Memorial Cup consisting not only of the two highest scoring teams in the tournament, but a pair of squads who combined for 14 goals in their lone meeting, this was expected to be a shoot out.
Acadie-Bathurst’s Evan Fitzpatrick and Regina’s Max Paddock had other things in mind.
The two goalies faced many high quality chances but had an answer for nearly every single shot. Those that they did not stop, rang off the posts in behind them.
Paddock kept his overwhelmed team close in the first 40 minutes and stopped 41 of 43 in a losing effort.
For the Titan, Fitzpatrick had to be at his best in the third and stopped all 28 shots he faced.
The Titan got on the board off some work down low after rushing up the ice on a 3-on-2. A pass was mishandled by Mitchell Balmas, but defenseman Adam Holwell jumped up, snagged the puck and found the far post low on Paddock’s blocker side.
The marker was Holwell’s second of the tournament and fourth from a d-man in four games for Acadie-Bathurst.
The Titan won the shot battle in the period and owned the majority of possession.
They would turn it up a notch in the second period.
Acadie-Bathurst were all over Regina in the middle frame, pinning them deep in their own zone and firing quality shot after quality shot on Paddock. The 2000-born netminder stopped them all.
A few times he had to dive to make the stop, but still looked to be confidently in the right place each time.
The Titan fired 24 shots on Paddock with only six going back the other way. Despite the ongoing siege, the Pats were only one shot from tying the game after 40 minutes.
They were out shot 36-11 overall and seemed to be skating against the stream with the Titan winning the race to nearly every loose puck.
Whatever head coach John Paddock said to his team after the second period appeared to work.
The Pats jumped all over the Titan and tested Fitxpatrick often. They had 12 of the first 15 shots in the first 10 minutes of the third.
Regina defenseman Josh Mahura had several of the shots and nearly sneaked one by Fitzpatrick.
With his team owning the momentum, Cam Hebig took a delay-of-game penalty in the third.
Despite being short-handed Regina did not give much up. They then pounced on the Titan after Hebig came out of the box and Hebig got a big one-timer.
Fitzpatrick kicked out a pad and the play went the other way. Jeffrey Truchon-Viel stick-handled between his own legs and got a pass across to a driving Samuel Asselin. The Titan forward was tied up with Hebig but got enough of the puck to squeeze it by a sliding Paddock.
Now down 2-0, the Pats were forced into a desperate situation.
They did get a power play late in the game, but could not solve the Titan penalty kill.
Then with Paddock pulled for an extra attacker, Ethan Crossman put the game away with an empty-net goal.
A 17-shot effort in the third period was not enough for the Pats, as they fell shot of winning their first Memorial Cup since 1974.
Fitzpatrick’s shutout was the first in a Memorial Cup final since 2005.
Notes:
-Regina has Hebig, Matt Bradley and the injured Jesse Gabrielle age out of the WHL. They will also likely lose Sam Steel, Libor Hajek and Josh Mahura who are all signed by their NHL teams and will play professionally next season. Cale Fleury has not been signed by Montreal but could be soon.
-The remaining 19-year-olds, who will vie for the three overage spots next year are forwards Bryce Platt, Jared Legien, Emil Oksanen (also an import), defensemen Brady Pouteau, Liam Schioler, Aaron Hyman, Fleury (maybe) and goalies Ryan Kubic and Kyle Dumba. That is nine players vying for three spots.
-Jeffrey Truchon-Viel took a rough hit from Fleury in the third and did not return to the game.
