2025 Memorial Cup round robin, game 4 – Monday, May 26th: Moncton Wildcats 1-3 Medicine Hat Tigers

Medicine Hat were a strong possession team in this game and made the most of their power play opportunities even if it didn’t always translate to goals. They were aggressive when it came to getting pucks on net and ultimately out-shot Moncton 41-22. Ryder Ritchie (Minnesota Wild) was a beneficiary of this mentality when a rebound led indirectly to his first of two goals of the game, with his second coming on a one-timer. I have to give a lot of credit to Harrison Meneghin (Tampa Bay Lightning), as well, for being rock solid between the pipes yet again. Caleb Desnoyers (2025 NHL Entry Draft) had some decent chances in this game despite it not being his best overall performance, but Meneghin was locked in in the crease. It cannot be ignored that a defining characteristic of this game was poor situational awareness by Moncton. They nearly took a seven player too many men penalty early in the game due to a poorly conducted line change, then it actually did occur late in the match when attempting to pull G Mathis Rousseau for the extra attacker. This yielded an empty net, power play goal for MHT from Gavin McKenna (2026 NHL Entry Draft) on a long bomb to put the game away. While it is true that MHT were above par in this game and were the superior team and the game had a close scoreline throughout its proceedings, I do feel as though Moncton could’ve tightened their game up. That’s the way the cookie crumbles sometimes, though, and Medicine Hat took advantage to put themselves in a situation where they were up against London (who also started the tournament 2-0) with an automatic berth into the Memorial Cup finals on the line.

2025 Memorial Cup round robin, game 5 – Tuesday, May 27th: London Knights 1-3 Medicine Hat Tigers

You had to have a good feeling about this game early on if you were rooting for Dale Hunter’s group. It started in archetypal London fashion, with the power play going to work after Hunter St. Martin (Florida Panthers) went to the box for high sticking. Just 21 seconds into the PP, Sam Dickinson (San Jose Sharks) blasted one from the point and had it knocked in by the ever-lethal finisher, Kasper Halttunen (San Jose Sharks), with captain Denver Barkey (Philadelphia Flyers) being credited for the secondary assist. They controlled the pace of the game and hoarded the puck for long stretches, giving MHT little chance to set up offensive plays throughout most of the first. What plays they did generate, they were not able to put a good enough finishing touch on. The story began to change in the second period and Medicine Hat were eventually able to level the score at 1 when RW Ethan Neutens scored a sharp angle goal after Tanner Molendyk (Nashville Predators) sent out a quasi-shot pass that hit a London skate and found Neutens unmarked. Just 1:17 into the first period, Mathew Ward (Northern Michigan University commit) finished a play with a bit of a spin and put it past G Austin Elliott (UMass Lowell commit) to give Medicine Hat their first lead of the game. With Elliott pulled for the extra attacker late, London gave it all they had and facilitated a good looking cycle, but Medicine Hat was able to eventually create a breakout and Ritchie put the game away with yet another goal. This gave Medicine Hat their coveted direct final spot and a chance to play for the CHL’s grand prize for the first time since 2007, when they lost to a historic Vancouver Giants team. Their most recent victory was in 1988, the second half of their historic back-to-back. The Knights, meanwhile, will have to win the semifinal to get in, with their opponent being the victor of tomorrow’s Moncton-Rimouski matchup to close the round robin out. I am sure they would have preferred the easier path, but as Saginaw demonstrated last year (against London, setting them on this redemption road), you can play in the semifinal and still win it all. We’ll see what Hunter’s squad has in store for us in the last chance for this core to achieve the ultimate victory.