Thunderbirds lose 3-1 to Québec Remparts in second game of Memorial Cup
Seattle Thunderbirds defenseman Nolan Allan skates with the puck in Game 5 of the WHL Championship series against the Winnipeg Ice at accesso ShoWare Center in Kent, Wash. on May 19, 2023. (photo by Brian Liesse / Seattle Thunderbirds)
William Rousseau stopped 35 shots for the Québec Remparts and Théo Rochette scored a pair of goals to hand the Seattle Thunderbirds a 3-1 loss in their second game of the Memorial Cup.
The Thunderbirds were held scoreless until Nolan Allan's goal with 2:22 left to play gave Seattle a chance at a late rally. Instead, Charle Truchon found an empty net goal with a shot the full length of the ice with 18 seconds remaining to seal the victory for the Remparts.
The Thunderbirds will face WHL rival the Kamloops Blazers on Wednesday night to potentially secure a spot in the tournament semifinal. Both Seattle and Kamloops can advance if Québec defeats the Peterborough Petes on Tuesday night as well. The Remparts clinched a spot in the Cup final with the victory.
Seattle out-shot Québec by a 36-22 margin in the game, but the Remparts did a good job of limiting the quality of the Thunderbirds shots until the third period. Rousseau came up big in the final period for Québec to hold off Seattle.
As they did in their first game of the tournament against Peterborough, the Thunderbirds allowed a goal shortly after the game began. Just 54 seconds into the contest, a shot from Zachary Bolduc rebounded off the pads of goaltender Thomas Milic before deflecting back off Rochette and into the net for a 1-0 Québec lead.
Milic came up with a big save minutes later as he denied Pier-Olivier Roy to keep it at just a one-goal lead. James Malatesta then hit the crossbar for the Remparts as they kept creating scoring opportunities in the first 20 minutes.
However, Seattle would make it through the opening frame without allowing the lead to expand.
"I thought in general we played a pretty good game," head coach Matt O'Dette said. "Probably could have got off to a better start. Giving up the first one wasn't ideal. I thought from there we really picked up our game and played well for good chunks of the game."
The Thunderbirds had to survive a 5-on-3 chance for Québec in the second period as both Colton Dach and Reid Schaefer ended up in the penalty box for 37 seconds due to separate high-sticking call. After killing off the penalties, the Seattle created one of its most dangerous chances of the game. Kyle Crnkovic and Dylan Guenther had a 2-on-1 chance only for Rousseau to glove a saucer pass from Crnkovic to Guenther out of the air as Guenther crashed to the net.
The Thunderbirds out-shot the Remparts 10-5 in the final period with Rousseau continuing to hold strong in net for Québec. Dach had a pair of chances early in the period and Jared Davidson had a chance stopped by Rousseau's pad.
"Their goalie played really well," O'Dette said. "I thought we could get maybe a little bit more traffic on him, make it harder on him. Spent a lot of time in there but I thought maybe we could get inside a little bit more. Generally a good game. They're a good team, they're an opportunistic team and they cashed in more than we did."
A power play chance for Seattle with 8:59 remaining led to a shot from Guenther saves by Rousseau and a backdoor look for Gracyn Sawchyn that deflected high and out of play.
Then with just over three minutes remaining, Bolduc forced a turnover as he checked Jeremy Hanzel against the boards. It led to a 2-on-1 chance for Québec as Rochette finished a pass from Mikael Huchette by Milic for a 2-0 lead.
The two-goal advantage lasted just 43 seconds for Québec. With Milic pulled for an extra skater, a Jordan Gustafson shot missed the net wide right only to bounce off the endboards and back in front of the net to Allan, who fired it over the shoulder of Rousseau to finally get the Thunderbirds on the board.
Seattle was shutout just once all season in a 1-0 loss at Everett on Feb. 4.
Milic returned to the bench for a final push only for Truchon to fire the puck aerially from behind the Remparts own goal the length of the ice for an empty net goal to seal the 3-1 victory.
Milic made 19 saves on just 21 shots faced.
"In short-term competitions, you've got to have a quick mindset, forget about the last game whether you won it or lost it and just kind of turn your focus on the next opponent," Dach said. "It's a familiar opponent with Kamloops and I think the boys are going to be ready for that one."