It took seven games and two overtimes, but the QMJHL final finally got a win from the home team as the Rimouski Oceanic beat the Quebec Remparts 2-1 in double overtime to claim the President’s Cup. Both teams will join the OHL’s Oshawa Generals and WHL’s Kelowna Rockets at this year’s Memorial Cup, which starts Friday, in Quebec City,
Florida Panthers prospect Chris Clapperton opened the scoring with a power-play goal at the 12-minute mark of the first period, with the assists going to Michael Joly and Alexis Loiseau. The goal was Clapperton’s 12th of the postseason.
The Remparts evened the tilt with a power-play tally of their own just 3:40 later. Nikolas Brouillard got the goal, with the lone assist going to Guillaume Gauthier.
The next goal would not come for another 66:33 as goaltenders Philippe Desrosiers and Zachary Fucale dueled into well into the night. Desrosiers finished the game with 47 saves while Fucale made 32 stops.
Clapperton combined with Frederik Gauthier to set up Joly’s series-deciding goal 2:13 into the sixth period, giving the Oceanic its first league title since 2005. Clapperton finished the playoffs with 25 points, good for sixth in the league.
It’s been an exciting past few days for the Panthers organization with Aaron Ekblad claiming a Gold Medal at the IIHF World Championship, while fellow blueliner Dmitry Kulikov picked up a Silver Medal skating for the Russians. Prospect Josh Brown was part of Oshawa’s OHL title run and now Clapperton and his Oceanic teammates have won the President’s Cup.