Team Daigle got the 2025 QMJHL Cup off to a strong start with an 8-6 victory over Team Savage on Thursday afternoon in an offensive showdown at Boisbriand’s Centre d’excellence Sports Rousseau.
Team Daigle trailed 6-5, but skated away with the victory thanks to third-period goals from Benjamin Veitch, Phenwick MacLean and James Scantlebury.
Veitch, MacLean and Tanner Hayden led the way with a goal and two assists each. For Team Savage, Alexy Lafleur struck twice, while Drew Murphy (player of the game for his team) and Evan Sercerchi added a goal and an assist each.
Team Savage has four 6-foot defensemen in its lineup, and it showed right from the start, as the shoulder checks rained down. They threatened in the opening minutes, but Liam Armit took advantage of the other side’s first chance to complete Raphaël Dupré’s pass and score Team Daigle’s opening goal.
Sercerchi tied the score, but Jérémie Duclos-Claude and Hayden replied to forge a 3-1 lead for Team Daigle. Lafleur closed the gap to 3-2 with 2:12 to play before the first intermission.
Dupré and Drew Murphy then exchanged goals in the second period, before Emrick Nolette-Robidoux extended Team Daigle’s lead to 5-3. But the Red Team got some good saves from Antoine Chidiac, before completing a comeback thanks to Elliot Bibeau-Rivard and Nathan Ouellet. Lafleur gave Team Savage its first lead, collecting a rebound in front of the net with less than 90 seconds left in the second period.
The third period belonged entirely to Team Daigle. Veitch first tied the score at 6-6 with a beautiful deke, before seeing MacLean give his team the lead midway through the final frame. Then, Xavier Halloran made a spectacular pad save on an Elliot Bibeau-Rivard breakaway. It paid off, as the Blue squad followed up with the winning goal.
It was an opportunity for scouts to see in action one of the candidates to be the first pick in the 2025 QMJHL Draft, James Scantlebury. He scored the final goal of the game to make it 8-6.
_
GAME STATS : CLICK HERE
