The Kent-based Seattle Thunderbirds lost 3-1 to the Quebec Remparts in their second Memorial Cup game on Monday, May 29 at the Sandman Centre in Kamloops, British Columbia.
Quebec advanced to the championship game on Sunday, June 4 with its second victory in the four team, round-robin tournament. Seattle beat Peterborough 6-3 in its opener May 27.
Seattle plays the Kamloops Blazers at 6 p.m. Wednesday, May 31 to wrap up round-robin play and remain alive for a title-game berth. Kamloops also has a 1-1 record in Memorial Cup play. Both Seattle and Kamloops lost to Quebec.
Quebec can eliminate Peterborough from the tournament with a victory on Tuesday, May 30.
Theo Rochette scored twice to lead Quebec over the T-Birds, who trailed 1-0 after the first period and 2-0 late in the third period before Noah Allan scored to make it 2-1. Quebec then scored an empty-net goal.
The T-Birds are aiming for their first Memorial Cup title. Quebec won titles in 1971 and 2006.
Rochette scored just 54 seconds into the game. Seattle goalie Thomas Milic made a save on a shot by Zachary Bolduc but the rebound hit Rochette in the chest and went in, according to the CHL website. Rochette added his second goal with 3 minutes, six seconds left in the third period.
Seattle had 36 shots on goal and Quebec had 22.
“I thought, generally we played a good game,” said Thunderbirds head coach Matt O’Dette on the team’s website. “We controlled the play for the majority of the game.”
O’Dette said it was not ideal to give up a goal in the first minute of the game as Quebec took the lead just 54 seconds in. But the coach felt they responded well.
“There are things we could have done better on that goal,” he said. “But we got on our path, started playing the way we need to play. We spent a lot of time in their end.”
Memorial Cup schedule/results
Friday, May 26 Quebec 8, Kamloops 3
Saturday, May 27 T-Birds 6, Peterborough 3
Sunday, May 28 Kamloops 10, Peterborough 2
Monday, May 29 Quebec 3, T-Birds 1
Tuesday, May 30 Quebec vs. Peterborough
Wednesday, May 31 Kamloops vs. T-Birds, 6 p.m.
Thursday, June 1 Tie-Breaker game, 6 p.m.*
Friday, June 2 Semifinal, 7 p.m.
Sunday, June 4 Final, 4 p.m.
* – if necessary
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