Gravel, Ryczek and Mooseheads fall to Huskies in Memorial Cup Final

In a familiar finale, the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies again got the better of the Halifax Mooseheads with a championship on the line. As the host city for the 2019 Memorial Cup, Halifax rode the home-ice advantage through the round-robin portion to a 2–1–0 record and a tiebreaker advantage to advance directly to the Memorial Cup Final.

After coming up on the wrong end of the tie-breaker, the Huskies had to get through the OHL champion Guelph Storm in the semifinal to get to the Memorial Cup Final. After dispatching the Storm, the Huskies advanced to face the Mooseheads in a rematch of the QMJHL Finals, where the Huskies came out on top with a 4–2 series win.

Halifax Mooseheads goaltender Alexis Gravel. (Photograph courtesy of Vincent Ethier/CHL Images)

In the Memorial Cup Final, the Mooseheads jumped out to a 2–0 lead just over five minutes into the second period after goals from Samuel Asselin in the first period and Raphael Lavoie in the second. Chicago Blackhawks prospect Jake Ryczek tallied a primary assist on the game’s opening goal for his second point of the tournament. Midway through the middle frame, the Huskies broke through and tallied two goals of their own to tie the game heading into the third period at 2–2.

Halifax Mooseheads defenseman Jake Ryczek skates on to the ice. (Photograph courtesy of the Halifax Mooseheads)

In the third period, the Huskies scored two goals two minutes apart to take a 4–2 lead with just under 15 minutes to play in regulation. Rouyn-Noranda refused to take their foot off the gas with a two-goal cushion, continuing to pressure the Mooseheads and out-shooting the host city 11–9 in the third period and 25–15 between the second and third periods combined. Halifax pulled Gravel with just over three minutes to play but could not find any late-game magic.

Congrats to the @HuskiesRn who have won the #MemorialCup with a 4-2 victory over your Mooseheads. Thank you for being with us on an incredible run Moose Country. You truly are the best fans in Canada and you proved it again this week. #GoMooseGo pic.twitter.com/C684YGH51y

— Halifax Mooseheads (@HFXMooseheads) May 27, 2019

The Huskies triumphed for the first time since the creation of the team in 1996 in their second-ever trip to the Memorial Cup. For Halifax, they remain a one-time Memorial Cup champion (2013) in three trips to the tournament. Ryczek finished the tournament with a goal and an assist in four games played, while Gravel finished with a 2–2–0 record, a 2.78 goals against average and a .918 save percentage in the tournament.

Both remain unsigned by the Blackhawks, but have time still under their draft rights to work out contracts within the organization. At 21 years old, Ryczek is eligible to play professionally at any time, but Gravel, who just turned 19 years old in March, will play at least one more season in the QMJHL before considering to move onto the professional ranks.

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The WHL champion Prince Albert Raiders went winless in the tournament, and are out,

While Rouyn-Noranda got the win in that game ending the round robin phase, Halifax benefited from the three-way tiebreaking format and advanced to the Memorial Cup final outright. Separately, Rouyn-Noranda advanced to the semi-final against the OHL champion Guelph Storm, which will determine the Mooseheads’ tournament final game opponent.

Entwistle, Ryczek, and Gravel advance in Memorial Cup

For the three Chicago Blackhawks prospects still alive in the tournament, this weekend’s action will be the cap to some impressive seasons in the Canadian Hockey League.

Friday night’s matchup between Guelph and Rouyn Noranda and for Chicago represents a chance for Blackhawks prospect Mackenzie Entwistle to finish something he started in last year’s Memorial Cup. Entwistle lost in the semi-final last season while playing for the Hamilton Bulldogs. He returned this season as a two-time OHL Champion and has three points through the round-robin portion of the tournament.

Entwistle tallied a goal and an assist in the first game of the tournament, a 5-2 Guelph win over Rouyn-Noranda. He was held off the scoresheet against Halifax in the second game of the tournament and then finished the round-robin with an assist in Guelph’s win over Prince Albert. Friday night’s puck drop for the semi-final takes place at 6 p.m. Central Time at the Scotiabank Centre in Halifax.

Guelph Storm forward Mackenzie Entwistle (left) battles for a puck at the Memorial Cup. (Photo Courtesy of Vincent Ethier/CHL Images)

After falling to Rouyn-Noranda in the QMJHL Finals, the Halifax found themselves playing host for the Memorial Cup—riding the momentum of friendly crowds to wins in their first two contests of the tournament. Behind Blackhawks goalie prospect Alexis Gravel and defense prospect Jake Ryczek, the Mooseheads took care of Prince Albert and Guelp, locking themselves into the elimination round with just the rematch of the QMJHL Final ahead of them.

Jake Ryczek (center, 16) celebrates a goal with his Halifax Moosehead teammates at the Memorial Cup. (Photo Courtesy of Vincent Ethier/CHL Images)

While the Mooseheads were not able to top the Huskies in their rematch, a 4-3 loss, the result still guaranteed them a tie for first-place—from which the tiebreaker moved them directly to the Final. For Ryczek, 12 shots on goal rank him in a five-way tie for third most in the tournament and his goal against the Prince Albert in the opening game of the tournament helped propel Halifax to a commanding 4-1 win. In his last go-around with the Mooseheads this season, Ryczek has a chance to win his first-ever tournament championship in his junior career.

Halifax Mooseheads goaltender Alexis Gravel being honored as First-Star of the game after topping the Guelph Storm at the Memorial Cup. (Photo Courtesy of Vincent Ethier/CHL Images)

One of the most impressive aspects of the Mooseheads’ run to the Memorial Cup Final has been the play in net of Alexis Gravel. He made 56 saves on the first 59 shots he faced in the tournament, winning both games and being named first star in Game Two against Guelph. Gravel finished the round-robin games with a 2-1-0 record and leads the tournament with a 2.33 GAA and a .929 save-percentage as he and Halifax head to the Memorial Cup Final on Sunday.

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One-on-one with Mackenzie Entwistle

The 2018–19 OHL season for Mackenzie Entwistle was quite eventful after being named captain of the Hamilton Bulldogs to begin the season, then being traded to the Guelph Storm in January and finishing with an OHL championship on home ice. Entwistle, along with his Hamilton teammate Jack Hanley, who also was traded to Guelph, now lead a resilient Storm team into the 2019 Memorial Cup with a chance to win the first ever Cup in team history.

Here is The-Rink’s one-on-one with Mackenzie Entwistle.

On becoming a two-time OHL champion

It’s special. For me, having won it last year with Hamilton and then going through a whirlwind time around Christmas time when I got traded, I didn’t really know what to expect. But when I came over, I had a good buddy, Jack Hanley, on the team and I got welcomed by a nice billet family and I knew right away we had a special team. We came together really quickly and it’s something I’ll never forget.

Chicago Blackhawks prospect Mackenzie Entwistle (center, 10) celebrates a goal with his Guelph Storm teammates against the Ottawa 67’s. (Photograph courtesy of Luke Durda/OHL Images)

On being traded from Hamilton to Guelph

It was tough, especially when you’re in a spot for three and a half or four years, it was home. I developed friendships with the coaching staff and all my teammates and the fans, for me it was easy. But it was like switching jobs where I had to meet a whole new group of people, new fans, new coaches, but I played with (Isaac) Ratcliffe and Nick Suzuki before at the World Juniors, and obviously Jack Hanley, so I was fortunate enough to know a couple guys on the team.

Entwistle skates with the Hamilton Bulldogs earlier this season. (Photograph courtesy of Brandon Taylor via hamiltonbulldogs.com)

On Guelph’s run to the OHL championship

It was pretty crazy. For us to go down in almost all four series, I mean Kitchner wasn’t a breeze for us, it was a tough grind of a playoff. When I say the resiliency of the group was something special, I don’t really know how to put it into words. When you’re down 3–1 in a series or down 3–0 in a series to the teams that were ranked ahead of us, you know London was first and were supposed to make it to the Memorial Cup, so for us to do what we did just shows the group of guys we have in the locker room and the coaching staff how well we were prepared and how bad we wanted to win. It’s a special group and I think that is why we did it how we did.

On defeating the 67’s in four straight games, after Ottawa had won 14 straight prior to Game 3

We played them well during the year, especially in Guelph we played them really well, so we had confidence. We dropped the first two games of the series, but I think we could have won one but we played 40 minutes instead of 60 and that’s what cost us then. They’re a good team, they had three really strong lines and a good defense core and they were coached well. That’s why they were such a strong team. For us, our mentality was that you have to win your home games and then try to steal one on the road, in Ottawa, and that’s what we did. They hadn’t been through any adversity, the way we looked at it, and for us, having been in all those elimination games and adversity we went through, we knew how to respond. They didn’t respond too well and we kept taking advantage and ultimately that’s how we took the series lead and then won it.

On playing in back-to-back Memorial Cup tournaments

It’s definitely special and, as a player, that is all you can ask for. We didn’t get a chance to win it last year (with Hamilton) but now here I am again having the chance to win it again and that’s really special. For me and Hanley coming over from Hamilton, the biggest thing that we are going to help our team with is knowing we have to start on time. It’s a short tournament and every game matters, every shift matters and for us starting every playoff series slow and going down 0–2 or 0–3, you can’t do that in the Memorial Cup. We learned that last year with Hamilton; we were in a situation where we had to rely on other teams to win or lose. You have to win all your games in order to get through and that’s the mindset we have: trying to win our first game and then take it one game at a time.

Chicago Blackhawks prospect Mackenzie Entwistle lifts the J. Ross Robertson Cup. (Photograph courtesy of Terry Wilson/OHL Images)

On playing against teams he has not played this year

That’s where our coaching staff goes into play. As a player, I like not having to go up against the same guys all the time. It’s nice to see the talent pool in the other leagues. It should be fun, but I think we’ll watch some video and our coaches have been working hard to show us as much as they can about our opponents. I have no worries that we’ll be well prepared and we’re excited to get down there.

Mackenzie Entwistle handles the puck at the Chicago Blackhawks prospect camp in 2018. (Photograph courtesy of the Chicago Blackhawks)

On playing against fellow Chicago Blackhawks prospects Alexis Gravel and Jake Ryczek (Halifax Mooseheads)

Yeah, I got to know those guys a bit over the summer and I went out to a couple of dinners with them and got to know them. Obviously they are great hockey players, they got a good team in Halifax and it’ll be exciting to see how we match up against them and it’ll be good to see them.

The 2019 Memorial Cup begins on Friday in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The opening game is the WHL Champions Prince Albert Raiders taking on Gravel, Ryczek and host-city Halifax Mooseheads. Entwistle and the Storm begin the tournament Saturday against the QMJHL champions, Rouyn-Noranda Huskies.

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