Calgary prospect Etienne Morin and the Moncton Wildcats’ push for the Memorial Cup came to an end as they lost 5-2 to the OHL champions London Knights in the semi-final on Friday evening.
Morin made many efforts in the man-advantage for the QMJHL champions.
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In the first power play, the 20-year-old set up teammates Vincent Collard and Caleb Desnoyers but they couldn’t finish. He even put up a shot that rang the crossbar.
In the second man-advantage, Morin and the Wildcats finally struck oil, feeding the puck to Desnoyers who sniped the puck into the goal from the left faceoff circle, allowing Morin to register his first assist and third point of the tournament. The score got tied 1-1
This was Moncton’s first successful power play after the previous four in the tournament did not yield a goal.
Morin was called back into action for the Wildcats’ third power play. He put up two blocked shots, but Moncton levelled the game 2-2 as soon as his shift ended on the man-advantage.
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The 2023 second-round pick was quarterbacking 5v5 situations as well, as close to the end of the second period, London’s Jared Woolley broke his stick in the offensive zone and wound up having to take Landon Sim’s stick, leaving the Knights pseudo-shorthanded. Morin put up a shot that got blocked by Sim and fed another pass to Desnoyers which did not find the back of the net.
Unfortunately, in the fourth of the third period, Morin would be unable to contain London’s Blake Montgomery from scoring the game-winning goal.
The Quebec native never recovered after that.
The London Knights will now face another Flames prospect in Andrew Basha and the WHL champions Medicine Hat Tigers in the Memorial Cup Final on Sunday
Puck drop is at 7 pm ET/4 pm ET.