RAIDERS BOUNCED FROM MEMORIAL CUP

Photo: Rik Fedyck

HALIFAX – Nick Suzuki put an end to the season for the Prince Albert Raiders, while also giving his Guelph Storm a chance to go directly to the Memorial Cup final.

The Montreal Canadiens prospect had two goals and an assist as Guelph beat the WHL champion Raiders 5-2 on Tuesday, eliminating Prince Albert from the four-team tournament.

The OHL champion Storm (2-1) are now turning their attention to Wednesday’s final round-robin game that will decide which one of the three remaining teams goes straight to the championship.

The host Halifax Mooseheads (2-0) play the Quebec league champion Rouyn-Noranda Huskies (1-1) to wrap up the preliminary-round portion of the tournament. It’s a rematch of the QMJHL final that the Huskies took in six games.

A Halifax win would send the Mooseheads directly to the final with a 3-0 record, while a Huskies victory would leave Halifax, Guelph and Rouyn-Noranda with 2-1 records and needing a tiebreaker to determine playoff seeding.

Sean Montgomery and Dante Hannoun scored for the Raiders (0-3). Brayden Pachal had two assists as Ian Scott stopped 20 shots.

“Not the way we wanted to finish for sure,” said Raiders coach Marc Habscheid. “I’m disappointed for the guys right now.

“Tonight we were gassed. Just didn’t have much of a tank, so that’s the tournament.”

WHL champions have struggled in recent years at the Memorial Cup and this time around was no different.

The Raiders dropped three games in a row at the national major junior hockey championship to be sent home early.

Tuesday’s loss was the 13th in a row for the WHL at the four-team competition, dating back five tournaments.

The last time the WHL champion won a contest was the 2015 semifinal, when the Kelowna Rockets beat the Quebec Remparts before falling to the Oshawa Generals in the final to start the streak of defeats.

“Long season, emotionally and physically. No excuse but we were drained,” said Pachal.