By Canadian Press

Huskies beat Mooseheads 4-3 on late goal from Lauko; Halifax still goes to final

May 22, 2019 | 9:04 PM

HALIFAX — Jakub Lauko scored the winner with 54 seconds to go in regulation as the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies beat the Halifax Mooseheads 4-3 on Wednesday in the final round-robin game of the Memorial Cup.

Halifax (2-1) still gets a direct entry into the tournament final on Sunday by winning the tiebreaker between the three teams with 2-1 records.

The Huskies (2-1) and Ontario league champion Guelph Storm (2-1) meet in Saturday’s semifinal. The Western league champion Prince Albert Raiders (0-3) were eliminated Tuesday.

Felix Bibeau, Joel Teasdale and William Rouleau also scored for the Quebec league champion Huskies. Samuel Harvey made 24 saves.

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Benoit-Olivier Groulx, Arnaud Durandeau and Antoine Morand scored for the host Mooseheads. Alexis Gravel stopped 34 shots.

Wednesday’s game was a rematch of the QMJHL final that Rouyn-Noranda took in six games, and there was no love lost between the two clubs.

While the majority of the crowd was pro-Mooseheads, the Huskies had an entire section of travelling fans in the building to show their support.

The Scotiabank Centre was loud even before puck drop and Gravel looked sharp from the onset, making two big saves on a Rouyn-Noranda power play to keep the game scoreless.

Justin Barron had the first scoring chance for the Mooseheads eight minutes in only to be turned away by Harvey on a breakaway, and Jake Ryczek hit the post with a point shot on the very next shift.

Bibeau finally broke the goose egg for the Huskies with 5:22 to go in the first when he got behind the defence and beat Gravel over the shoulder from in tight. The play was reviewed for offside but the goal stood after video showed the puck never left the Halifax zone.

The Mooseheads hadn’t trailed once in the tournament until Bibeau’s marker, but quickly found themselves down 2-0 off a turnover.

Peter Abbandonato stole the puck deep in the Mooseheads zone and set up Teasdale with a pretty feed between the face-off circles only 1:12 later. This one would also stand after going to a lengthy video review for offside.

Halifax came out strong to start the second, and Groulx cut his team’s deficit in half just 48 seconds into the period when he crossed the blue line and let go a wrist shot glove side on Harvey.

Then Durandeau tied the game at 7:34 with a snapshot blocker side from the top of the face-off circle.

Things started to heat up with both teams taking extra hacks at each other when possible. Many plays went uncalled until Bibeau appeared to kick Samuel Asselin in the head when the Mooseheads forward was down on the ice, leading to an unsportsmanlike conduct minor. 

Halifax forward Joel Bishop needed to be looked at by a team trainer and went to the dressing room in pain after he was taken into the endboards by Samuel Regis, who went to the box for boarding at 18:28.

Morand made the Huskies pay 49 seconds into the power play when he finished off a pass from Keith Getson from the top of the crease for a 3-2 lead to take into the third period.

Rouyn-Noranda carried all the momentum in the third and Rouleau tied the game with a wrist shot up top on Gravel with 9:47 to play to make things interesting.

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Kyle Cicerella, The Canadian Press