Montreal Canadiens Nick Suzuki ends Cole Fonstad’s season in flair
One Montreal Canadiens prospect eliminated another at the Memorial Cup as Nick Suzuki, and his two-goal performance pushed the Guelph Storm to a 5-2 win.
Nick Suzuki and Cole Fonstad may end up being teammates on the Montreal Canadiens in the future, but that wasn’t the case Tuesday night at the Memorial Cup. The Price Albert Raiders needed a win to keep their season alive and have the chance at forcing a tie-breaker game on Thursday. However, the Guelph Storm wouldn’t be stopped getting the decision.
As it’s been since the OHL playoffs began, Suzuki was the star of the show. It began with a slick move past Fonstad in the neutral zone creating an offensive rush as members of the Raiders went off for a change. Suzuki wound up finding Fedor Gordeev by the hash marks who scored to put Guelph up halfway through the first period.
The Storm and Raiders wound up trading goals leaving Guelph up 3-2 near the beginning of the second period. However, given how desperate Prince Albert started to play, the OHL Champions were in need of some insurance and Suzuki was the provider.
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It took two passes starting with Sean Durzi from the neutral zone who found Issac Ratcliffe on the border of the offensive blue line. The Raiders took their eye off Suzuki who broke through a three-man line of players beating Ian Scott over the glove.
Suzuki put Prince Albert away for good in the third period with a backhand shot that bounced off Scott’s pads from behind and in. That was Suzuki’s third goal of the Memorial Cup and his fifth point overall putting him second among all players behind teammate Durzi.
It’s great to see the 20-year-old continue his scoring pace, but unfortunately, it came at the cost of Fonstad’s season. The 2018 fifth-round pick added more offence to his performance at the Memorial Cup. Fonstad had a point-per-game with a goal and two assists, completely different from is scoring pace in the WHL playoffs (0.29 PPG).
The Guelph Storm are now at the top of the standings at the Memorial Cup with four points. The Halifax Mooseheads may finish first if they defeat Joël Teasdale and the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies on Wednesday. If the Huskies get the win, goals for will be used to decide the final seeding and the Storm are already leading in that department with 12. However, the Mooseheads aren’t too far behind as they have 8.
Next. What if the Habs had the first-overall pick?. dark
It’ll be interesting to see how the Round Robin finishes and who slots in where. After this, things get serious.