Montreal Canadiens: Which prospect moves on to the Memorial Cup Final?

The 2019 Memorial Cup is in its playoff rounds, and Montreal Canadiens prospects Nick Suzuki and Joël Teasdale will face off to decide who makes the final.

The Memorial Cup began with three Montreal Canadiens prospects, and now that the Round Robin is over, that number has been reduced to two. Cole Fonstad and the Prince Albert Raiders fell to the Guelph Storm ending their season while the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies finished off on a high defeating the Halifax Mooseheads 3-2.

There ended up being a three-way tie as the Storm, Huskies, and Mooseheads all finished the Round Robin with four points. However, Halifax breaks the tiebreaker based on point percentage and goals scored after the stats from their game against the Raiders were removed to settle the decision. That sends them right to the Memorial Cup final while Guelph and Rouyn-Noranda square off in the semis.

It’ll be another battle of Montreal Canadiens prospects between Nick Suzuki and Joël Teasdale.

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The Storm took the first game during the Round Robin by a score of 5-2 where Suzuki had a goal, and Alexey Toropchenko put up three while Teasdale was held pointless. He’s found the board more since then and walks into this game with two goals and an assist.

Suzuki, on the other hand, is third in Memorial Cup scoring with three goals and two assists showing no signs of slowing down or letting up.

The challenging part is that the stakes have increased dramatically. Suzuki and Teasdale are no longer playing for points in the standings to ensure the best position. The team who loses is sent home while the winner moves on to win a championship against the home team.

There hasn’t been too much of a wait since either team’s last Memorial Cup appearance. The Storm made it back in 2014 but lost to the Edmonton Oil Kings while the Huskies got there in 2016 losing to the London Knights. It’ll be interesting to see who gets the opportunity to win seeing as neither team has a championship win in its history.

Rouyn-Noranda was the top-ranked team heading into the Memorial Cup and appear to be the favourites to win, but Guelph has been equally as dangerous so far. It will likely come down to which team’s top players stand up to the plate, and given how noticeable both Suzuki and Teasdale have been, it wouldn’t be surprising for it to be them on either team.

The game is set for 7:00 PM ET and will be broadcasted on Sportsnet Ontario, Pacific, East and West.