Team Savage secured its place in the 2025 QMJHL Cup Final with a convincing 6-3 win over Team Talbot on Friday evening at the Centre d’excellence Sports Rousseau in Boisbriand.
With this win, Team Savage now has six points in the standings, one ahead of Team Daigle, who still has a game to play tonight. For its part, Team Talbot will have to settle for the consolation final.
The Reds had plenty of momentum out of the gate for this final game. The proof: they fired 27 shots at Nikola Antonacci (44 saves) in the first period alone, for a total of 50 shots over the entire game. In fact, they took a 4-1 lead after 20 minutes, thanks to goals from Maxwell Branton, Camden Jackson, Quinn Norman and Evan Sercerchi.
Team Savage players clearly found some chemistry during the game. Their play was more structured, with good forechecking and a lot of screen shots. Branton and Jackson brought the score to 2-0 after 11:07, before seeing Félix-Sylvain Haché complete a fine pass by Nicolas Blanchette to reduce the gap to one goal 27 seconds later.
Norman then left his position at the blue line and beat Antonacci at 5:26 of the first period. But the most spectacular goal of the opening period came from the stick of Evan Sercerchi. The Fredericton Caps forward used his speed and weaved his way between two players, before beating Antonacci with a precise shot on a breakaway.
With the score at 4-1 and a second game in less than eight hours, Team Talbot was clearly frustrated in the second frame. It was actually on the power play, with 4:27 remaining in the frame, that William Dubé increased the Reds’ lead with a shot from the point.
Zack Arsenault then scored his first QMJHL Cup goal to give the Reds a 6-1 lead in the third. On the other side, Louis-Étienne Halley (his team’s player of the game) at least offered Team Talbot a consolation prize, with a magnificent breakaway goal with 7:07 remaining. Alexis Benoît then made it 6-3, but it was too little too late.
Team Savage now awaits the winner of the game between Team Bergeron and Team Daigle to find out its opponent in the Final, which takes place at 1:30 pm ET on Saturday afternoon. Team Talbot will meet the loser in the consolation final at 11 am.
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