Montreal Canadiens: Joël Teasdale ends his year a Memorial Cup Champion

The Rouyn-Noranda Huskies are the 2019 Memorial Cup Champions and Montreal Canadiens prospect Joël Teasdale was recognized as the team’s MVP.

As mentioned in the post leading up to the championship game at the Memorial Cup, life has a funny way of repeating itself. The Rouyn-Noranda Huskies and Halifax Mooseheads proved to be the two best teams in their runnings and met in the final. Unfortunately for the host team in Halifax, the result remained the same with the Huskies leaving the building as champions while Montreal Canadiens prospect Joël Teasdale was recognized for his efforts and contributions on the grand stage.

It wasn’t exactly the same as the QMJHL playoffs. The Mooseheads jumped to an early 2-0 lead striking late in the first period on the power play via Samuel Asselin. The rule of thumb is the two worst times to give up a goal is in the opening and remaining minutes of any frame and the Huskies fell victim to that.

Halifax doubled their score via 2019 draftee Raphael Lavoie. It was a tough yard sale for Rouyn-Noranda as they were just coming off a man advantage opportunity of their own.

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A passing play between Louis-Filip Côté and Alex Beaucage fell short. Asselin ended up with the puck in front of the net and cleared it down the middle of the ice just as Benoit-Olivier Groulx came out of the penalty box.

Huskies defenceman William Cyr got to the puck first in the neutral zone, but a slight check from Groulx on his way out disrupted possession. At the same time, Lavoie was already heading down the ice and picked up the puck after Cyr was tripped up a bit, making it a 1v1 against Samuel Harvey. A quick backhand-forehand opened up the five-hole allowing Lavoie to put the puck in the net and the Mooseheads up by two.

Halifax was feeling it, both the team and the fans in the stands, but the Huskies didn’t hold off. Fèlix Bibeau got the comeback going on a 4-on-4 opportunity right off the faceoff. Bibeau won the draw, but the puck was directed to Jocktan Chainey of the Mooseheads.

Rafaël Harvey-Pinard got to it skating below the red line feeding Bibeau who was left relatively free by Asselin.

Next up was Teasdale who scored on a similar play to his goal against the Guelph Storm back in the Round Robin. Jared McIsaac and Tyler Hinam were in a skating race for the puck heading into Halifax’s end. Both collided with the boards, and it’s very subtle, but Hinam kicks the puck to Teasdale who was headed behind the net from the other side.

Alexis Gravel misses the kick pass completely and commits to the right side not knowing Teasdale has the puck at all. From then on, it’s a simple wraparound tuck-in that allows the Habs prospect to tie the game at two.

The rest of the middle frame was period, but things kicked off again in the opening minutes of the third. Peter Abbandonato put the Huskies in the lead with a pretty individual effort to score before getting tripped up. Jakub Lauko did a good job in breaking the puck into the zone as well as the short pass to Abbandonato which would end up being the game-winning goal.

Vincent Marleau made it 4-2 exactly two minutes later to give the Huskies a semi-pseudo comfortable lead.

Halifax was desperate after that outshooting Rouyn-Noranda 8-4, but Harvey stopped every remaining shot he faced until the clock struck 0:00.

With that decision, the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies won the 2019 Memorial Cup for the first time in franchise history. This marks the second year in a row where a QMJHL team won the CHL and the second year in a row where the host team was the runner up at the tournament.

To make things better, Joël Teasdale was awarded the Stafford Smythe Memorial Trophy as the MVP of the Memorial Cup. Teasdale went on from his 34 points in 20 QMJHL playoff games to four goals and one assist including the one Sunday night that tied the game for the Huskies.

It’s a day of celebration for that team who dominated the QMJHL and made every effort to dominate at every level after the regular season ended. Additionally, it’s a win for the Montreal Canadiens who have a very special player to look forward to down the line.