KAMLOOPS – On a warm day in B.C.’s Interior, it was the Quebec Remparts, not the hometown Blazers, who opened the 2023 Memorial Cup with a sizzling win.
James Malatesta notched a hat trick while Kassim Gaudet added two goals for Remparts (1-0), as the Quebec league champions survived an early push by Kamloops, then scored four times in the second period. In the third, it was much the same, with Quebec tacking on three more goals en route to an 8-3 decision.
“We weren’t great,” said Blazers head coach Shaun Clouston, whose team gave up the first goal early in the first period, but put one in late in the frame to level the score. “We scored on a power play (to make it 1-1), but I don’t think we generated enough early. I think we have more (to give).
“Hats off to their team. They’re a great team and they did a great job in all areas of the game. We’ve got to be better.”
Nathan Gaucher, Theo Rochette and Matthew Seminoff also scored for Quebec, which outshot Kamloops 33-30, including 17-6 in the second. William Rousseau stopped 27 shots for the Remparts, who don’t play again until Monday, when they face the WHL champion Seattle Thunderbirds (0-0).
On the flip side, Remparts general manager and head coach Patrick Roy liked the result – but not all of it.
His team was penalized seven times, including two double minors for high sticking. However, the Blazers went just 2-for-7 with the extra man. Quebec was 1-for-1 on the power play.
“We’re going to have to be ready for every game,” said Roy. “I know today we took too many penalties. Seven is way too many. We need to be better in that regard.
“We also need to be a bit better defensively. The next game is Seattle, so we’re going to have to be better than we were today defensively.”
Caedan Bankier, Daylan Kuefler and Matthew Seminoff scored for Kamloops (0-1) before a sold-out crowd, while team captain Logan Stankoven had three assists. Dylan Ernst made 25 saves for the Blazers, whose next game is Sunday against the OHL champion Peterborough Petes (0-0).
Quebec opened the scoring seven minutes into the first period, a nice backhand goal following an even better backhand pass.
Racing for a loose puck in the neutral zone, Quebec’s Justin Robidas managed to get a partial step on Kamloops defenceman Aapo Sarell. Despite being hounded by Sarell as they barreled towards Kamloops’ goal, Robidas slipped a nice feed to Malatesta, who was just three steps behind and made no mistake in smoothly beating Ernst to make it 1-0.
Late in the period, at 16:40, the Blazers tied the game on a power play, in the second half of a double minor for high sticking.
After circling from behind Quebec’s net, Stankoven dished to Bankier at the left faceoff dot. Quebec’s goalie got a piece of the shot with his glove, but not enough to stop it from going in far side.
In the second, the Remparts struck quickly, scoring three times in the first six minutes.
Malatesta made it 2-1 at 1:05, with Gaucher then adding another for a 3-1 Remparts lead at 3:07. Then, at 5:42, Rochette scored on the power play to make it 4-1.
Gaudet pushed Quebec’s lead to 5-1 at 15:20, though Kuefler got one back for Kamloops at 16:11 to make it 5-2.
“When they scored, I thought we lost some energy,” said Clouston. “We tried to do a little bit too much … we didn’t manage the puck very well. Four turnovers which led … to way too many (chances). We knew they were a good transition team, we just got caught a lot.”
In the third, Seminoff scored at 4:30, re-energizing the hometown crowd after that deflating second period.
That goal also pumped up Kamloops’ bench, and the Blazers began playing with urgency. Their efforts led to a pair of power plays, but the Remparts sealed the game with a shorthanded goal – a long rebound by Gaudet following a shot by Robidas — at 9:19 to make it 6-3.
Robidas finished the game with three assists.
A 2-on-1 by Quebec at 11:33 to make it 7-3 saw fans start leaving the building. Another two-on-one goal with 4:28 left led to a large exodus among the crowd.
“You have to have a short-term memory,” Stankoven said in the post-game media session. “It’s a tournament style. Obviously a tough one tonight, but we’re going to go back to the drawing board tomorrow, watch some video and make some corrections.”
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