MONCTON, N.B. — A strong third period has the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies playing for the President Cup.
Mathieu Boucher scored two of his club’s three third-period goals as Rouyn-Noranda came from behind to defeat the Moncton Wildcats 5-4 on Sunday in Game 6 of their Quebec Major Junior Hockey League semifinal.
The Huskies took the best-of-seven set 4-2 and will face the Shawinigan Cataractes for the President Cup.
Rouyn-Noranda trailed 4-2 after 40 minutes, but Boucher made it a one-goal game 52 seconds into the third before tying the contest with another at 17:52. Boucher then set up Francis Perron for the go-ahead goal at 18:26.
Boucher finished the game with five points, with assists on second-period goals from Perron and Jean-Christophe Beaudin.
The Huskies were the top team in the QMJHL in the regular season and have gone 12-3 to make the finals. Meanwhile, Shawinigan was the No. 2 team and has gone 12-4 in the post-season.
Cameron Askew had a pair of goals for the Wildcats while Stephen Johnson and Manuel Wiederer scored the others.
Chase Marchand made 29 saves for the Huskies as Keven Bouchard kicked out 34-of-39 shots for Moncton.
Despite being beaten four times, Marchand heads into the finals with the best numbers of any goalie through three rounds of the playoffs. The 20-year-old netminder has a 1.13 goals-against average, .955 save percentage and six shutouts in 14 playoff appearances.
Rouyn-Noranda went 0 for 4 on the power play while the Wildcats scored twice on five chances with the man advantage.
Huskies forward Timo Meier was ejected at 11:18 of the second period after receiving a major and game misconduct for checking to the head.
