RIMOUSKI — Gardiner MacDougall had a blunt assessment of his team’s first period on Wednesday night.
“We were atrocious,” the Moncton Wildcats head coach said. “That may be, I don't know, the worst period in Memorial Cup hockey. It would be right up there for sure.”
In a do-or-die game against the Rimouski Oceanic, the Wildcats came out flat, trailing 2-1 on the scoreboard and 17-6 in the shot count after 20 minutes.
Then they bounced back and booked their ticket to the Memorial Cup semifinal.
Gabe Smith scored two goals and had two assists in a 6-2 win. The Wildcats shifted the momentum with two goals early in the second period to take a 3-2 lead.
The key to that turnaround? A serious pep talk from their master communicator.
"(MacDougall) gave us a special talk in the room,” said Smith, who didn’t want to reveal more details. “We got a little jump in our step after that and started playing our game.
“Coach is a very special motivator, and I think he did a great job of it there. We started playing our hockey after that.”
The Wildcats will take on the London Knights in Friday’s semifinal. The winner of that matchup meets the Medicine Hat Tigers in Sunday’s final.
Juraj Pekarcik and Julius Sumpf added a goal and an assist each while Etienne Morin also scored for Moncton (1-2), which lost games to London and Medicine Hat earlier in the round robin.
Alex Mercier added an empty-net goal and had an assist. Preston Lounsbury pitched in with two assists.
Mathis Rousseau made 32 saves – including a crucial 15 stops in the first period.
“He's been our star,” MacDougall said. “Kept us in it in the first, and despite the atrocious period, we're only down one."
The Wildcats acquired Rousseau via trade from the Halifax Mooseheads in January. The 20-year-old netminder – who featured on Canada’s world junior team last year – split duties with Rudy Guimont most of the season before taking over as the full-time starter during the playoffs.
Through three Memorial Cup outings, Rousseau has a .943 save percentage.
"That's why the trade was made,” MacDougall said. "Our goaltender was playing outstanding, and lots of the sports writers, lots of our fans wondered what the heck is this trade all about?
“But you have to have faith when you make these deals.”
The Wildcats captured the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League title in Rimouski last week, winning the championship series in six games over the Oceanic.
Mathieu Cataford and Maël St-Denis replied for Rimouski (0-3), which exits the tournament after qualifying as the host team.
Mathis Langevin stopped 26 shots at Colisée Financière Sun Life.
Pekarcik deflected Dylan MacKinnon’s shot from the high slot to beat Langevin at 1:27 of the second period to tie the game. Smith then put Moncton ahead at 4:05, capitalizing on a failed clearance from Luke Coughlin.
"It's the opportunism from the Wildcats that made the difference tonight," Rimouski captain Jacob Mathieu said. "It was a game that could have gone either way, like we saw in the finals."
Loke Johansson kept the lead intact with a goal-line clearance in the dying moments of the second period while Moncton was killing a penalty.
Jacob Mathieu’s shot deflected over Rousseau and into the blue paint with seven seconds left in the frame, but the Wildcats defenceman swept the puck away.
Early in the third period, Moncton poured it on.
Sumpf first missed a breakaway before Marcus Vidicek ripped a shot off the post. Morin then made no mistake, converting a point shot at 4:02 to double the lead.
Moncton later scored two empty-net goals.
"I had trouble to find words in the room, I just told them, 'Thank you,'" Rimouski head coach Joël Perrault said of his message to his players. "It's a group that tied together quickly, and I'll remember them for a long time, I'm disappointed for them tonight, our fans.
"Our fans saw their effort, their resilience, the injuries they fought through."
St-Denis energized the home crowd with a big open-ice hit on Maxime Côté in the opening minutes.
Rousseau turned aside two shots from Thomas Belzil and also denied Maxime Coursol’s scoring chance to keep the game scoreless early.
The Wildcats opened the scoring when Sumpf finished a cross-ice feed from Pekarcik at 7:39 in the first period for Moncton’s first goal by a forward in the tournament.
Rimouski continued to pepper Rousseau with pucks until St-Denis broke through with a backhand on the blocker side to even the score at 13:27.
Cataford put the Oceanic up 2-1 with just under three minutes remaining in the period, deflecting a feed from Olivier Théberge to complete a pretty passing play and lift the fans out of their seats.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 28, 2025.
Daniel Rainbird, The Canadian Press
