TUESDAY SPORTS PAGE: GOLDEN KNIGHTS, HEAT ADVANCE

KAMLOOPS, B.C. – The first three games of the 2023 Memorial Cup championship produced 32 goals.

So when Theo Rochette of the Quebec Remparts scored 54 seconds into Monday’s fourth preliminary round game at the Sandman Centre, fans expected there’d be much more to come.

But thanks to William Rousseau’s 35 saves in the Remparts’ net, they had to wait until 16:55 of the third period for Rochette to add his second of the night – and third of the tournament – to give his Quebec Major Junior Hockey League champion squad a 2-0 lead over the Seattle Thunderbirds, en route to a 3-1 victory.

The Western Hockey League champion T-Birds, with the netminder pulled for an extra attacker, got a goal at 17:38 from Nolan Allan and pressed for the equalizer, but couldn’t tie the contest. Charles Truchon scored an empty-netter for the Remparts at 19:42 to seal the deal.

The Remparts improved their record to 2-0 in the four-team, 10-day tournament and guaranteed themselves a berth in Sunday’s championship final. The T-Birds slipped to 1-1 – the same record as the host Kamloops Blazers.

The Thunderbirds outshot the Remparts 36-22. Seattle went 0-for-2 on the power play, while the Remparts were 0-for-3.

Rochette, who has been with the Remparts for four seasons, did his best to stay calm after the important victory. He credited Patrick Roy’s coaching for leading his team to Sunday’s title game.

“He’s such a great coach. We’ve all been dreaming of getting to the final for the past two years, so we’re happy to be here and now we have a ticket to the final so we’ll try to get it (Memorial Cup),” said Rochette.

Rousseau was quick to praise his teammates for their strong defensive effort in front of him.

“Seattle is a good offensive team, but our guys sacrificed their bodies for me tonight and I think they did a really good transition game and got those big goals at the end for us.”

The Remparts play the winless Peterborough Petes on Tuesday night (9 p.m. ET). The Ontario Hockey League champion Petes, who lost their first two games of the tournament, must beat the Remparts to remain in the playoff discussion.

POKE CHECKS: The Blazers and Thunderbirds wrap up the round-robin portion of the tournament on Wednesday night when they play each other (9 p.m. ET). The T-Birds defeated the Blazers in the Western Conference final in six games.

William Karlsson scored twice and added an assist, and Adin Hill stopped 23 shots for his second shutout of the playoffs as the visiting Vegas Golden Knights crushed the Dallas Stars 6-0 to win the best-of-seven Western Conference final 4-2. Vegas will now host the Eastern champion Florida Panthers in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup final on Saturday night.

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Dominic Cozzolino had five goals and eight points, while James Dunn added three goals as Canada opened the World Para Hockey Championship by crushing Korea 15-1 in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. Canada, which plays in Group A with Czechia, the United States and Korea, will face Czechia on Tuesday. Teams in Group B are Germany, China, Italy and Norway. The medal games are slated for Sunday.

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Jimmy Butler scored 28 points and Caleb Martin added 26 points as the visiting Miami Heat beat the Boston Celtics 103-84 in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals. The Heat, who almost blew a 3-0 series lead, will face the Western Conference champion Denver Nuggets in the N-B-A finals. Game 1 is in Denver on Thursday night.

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After a much-needed day off, the Toronto Blue Jays will try to make up for some lost ground in the standings on Tuesday when they host the Milwaukee Brewers for a three-game series. The 28-and-26 Jays are last in the five-team AL East. They’ll send left-hander Yusei Kikuchi to the mound Tuesday, while the Brewers counter with right-hander Adrian Houser.

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The Colorado Mammoth defeated the Buffalo Bandits, 16-10, to even their best-of-three National Lacrosse League (@NLL) Finals at Ball Arena. The results sets up a winner-take-all Game 3 in Buffalo on Saturday, June 3, at 7:30 p.m. ET (TSN, TSN+, ESPN+).

The 10,686 fans in attendance for Game 2 in Denver pushed the league’s total attendance mark for the 2022-23 season, including the playoffs, to its highest total ever, 1,147,232.

Colorado outscored the Bandits 10-4 in the second and third quarters to propel them to victory. Eli McLaughlin(Surrey, B.C.) and Ryan Lee (Newmarket, Ont.) led the Mammoth with seven points each, followed by Zed Williams(Silver Creek, NY) close behind with six. Mammoth netminder and 2022 NLL Finals MVP, Dillon Ward (Orangeville, Ont.), saved 38 of 48 Bandits shots.

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Ryan Blaney pulled away late to win the rescheduled Coca-Cola 600 on Monday at Charlotte Speedway, giving team owner Roger Penske a sweep of the Memorial Day weekend’s top races in the United States. Josef Newgarden won a record-extending 19th Indianapolis 500 on Sunday for Team Penske. It marked the first time Team Penske has earned a sweep of the two races in the same year.

(CP)