Landon DuPont scored twice in his return to the lineup, powering the Everett Silvertips to a 6-1 victory over the Chicoutimi Saguenéens in Friday’s semifinal at the Memorial Cup.
Carter Bear netted his third goal of the tournament and added an assist for the WHL champions, who also got goals from Jaxsin Vaughan, Zackary Shantz and Julius Miettinen as Everett advanced to face the OHL champion Kitchener Rangers in Sunday’s final.
Matias Vanhanen had two power-play assists and Anders Miller made 25 saves for the Silvertips, who led 2-1 and 5-1 at the period breaks. They will try to avenge a 6-2 defeat against Kitchener in their round-robin meeting on Monday.
That was Everett’s only loss thus far, previously beating Chicoutimi 5-3 in their opener last Saturday and blanking host Kelowna 4-0 on Wednesday without DuPont, who was scratched due to an undisclosed injury.
Tomas Lavoie scored Chicoutimi’s lone goal in the semifinal, as the QMJHL champions managed just one win here when they edged the host Kelowna Rockets 3-2 in overtime on Sunday. The Sags also lost 3-2 to Kitchener on Tuesday.
Lucas Beckman stopped 22 shots before getting pulled in Friday’s defeat. Raphael Precourt turned aside all eight shots in relief.
Kelowna went winless, also shut out by Kitchener 5-0 last Friday to start this showcase.
KEY MOMENT
DuPont restored Everett’s first-period lead with his first goal of the tournament, sparking the Silvertips to score four unanswered for a commanding 5-1 advantage through 40 minutes.
DuPont sat out Everett’s round-robin finale on Wednesday with an undisclosed injury but sniped a pair of goals in his return, picking a top corner from the high slot to make it 2-1 and then blasting a one-timer on a power play for the 5-1 insurance marker.
The London Knights (OHL) won the Memorial Cup last year with a 4-1 win in the final over the Medicine Hat Tigers (WHL).
UP NEXT
Sunday's final between the Rangers and Silvertips will start at 7 p.m. Eastern time.
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