Memorial Cup Game 4: Guelph Storm Clinch Birth in Finals With Win

Heading into the 2014 Memorial Cup a lot of people had the Guelph Storm and their offence as the favourites to win. Four games in and the Storm have already ridden their offence to the Memorial Cup finals. In fact, they appear to be the most dominate team in the CHL right now.

They had a dominating 6-3 victory of the Val d’Or Foreurs on Monday evening which improved their record to 2-0. With the win,

Photo Credit to https://www.flickr.com/photos/dan_hickling/

the Guelph Storm are guaranteed a birth in the Memorial Cup Finals. Can they break the QMJHL streak?

• Heading into the tournament, captain Matt Finn commented on how well the Storm worked together as a team and how their success this season was all because of the team coming together. Tonight the Storms 6 goals were all scored by different players. In fact 10 players had points in tonight’s affair. Zack Mitchell led the way with a goal and two assists while OHL playoff MVP Robby Fabbri netted a goal and an assist. Thus far, the Storms offence has yet to meet it’s match.
• Antoine Bibeau was stellar in the Foreurs first game of the tournament, helping them stun the London Knights. Tonight he was not quite as stellar, allowing 6 goals on 36 shots and being pulled after two periods of play. Back-up, Keven Bouchard ensured the Storm would not score any more goals and kept them off the board in the final 20 minutes.
• While the loss for the Foreurs was bad enough, the loss of defenceman Gelinas Guillaume is perhaps the worst loss of the night, especially if he can’t go in tomorrow’s game. He took an awkward knee-on-knee hit in the third period and had to be helped off the ice. He was the CHL’s top scoring defenceman and a big part of the Foreurs defence.
• While it’s true that he wins games, Justin Nichols did not look overly sharp tonight giving up 3 goals on 33 shots. The Storm have been able to cover up his mediocre play with scoring, however he may soon be called to answer the belll.