Rouyn-Noranda Huskies beat Halifax Mooseheads to win Memorial Cup
Huskies score 4 unanswered goals to claim 1st Memorial Cup title
Veteran Peter Abbandonato still remembers the heartache from his first Memorial Cup four years ago as a rookie. He wasn't going to go through it again as a veteran.
The overage forward, who played 264 career games for Rouyn-Noranda over four seasons, was a raw fourth-liner with the Huskies when they fell in the final of the four-team tournament in 2016 against the London Knights.
He did everything to erase that memory though, finishing the 2019 Quebec Major Junior Hockey League season as the top scorer with 111 points in 68 games, and wrapped up his storybook ending on Sunday with the biggest goal of his career.
WATCH | Huskies capture Memorial Cup for 1st time in franchise history:
"It's a completely different feeling, I remember losing it in overtime [against London] and I was really down," said Abbandonato.
"This is the last game of my junior career and I couldn't be prouder. Amazing feeling, no words to describe it. Twenty guys in the dressing room pushed for 90 something games this season."
Rouyn-Noranda, a Quebec mining town near the edge the Ontario border — about 625 kilometres northwest of Montreal — with a population of about 43,000, joined the QMJHL in 1996 and won its first President's Cup in 2016 before adding its second this year.
But his teammates got the job done while he watched from the stands and he was back in time to help capture junior hockey's biggest trophy.
"Sad moment when the doctor told me, I couldn't do anything about it but the guys pulled together and gave me another chance to play," he said.
"Jake, Sam, we stuck together, we were drafted together, we stuck together and are the proudest guys to wear this logo on our chest."
Huskies bench boss Mario Pouliot, fresh off being named CHL coach of the year, became just the third coach in CHL history to win a Memorial Cup with two different clubs, joining Don Hay and Bryan Maxwell, after capturing it last season with the Acadie-Bathurst Titan.
Many happy faces from members of the <a href="https://twitter.com/HuskiesRn?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@HuskiesRn</a> following winning the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/2019MemorialCup?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#2019MemorialCup</a>.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/OnetoRemember?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#OnetoRemember</a> <a href="https://t.co/WsrjtRa0Qg">pic.twitter.com/WsrjtRa0Qg</a>
—@CHLMemorialCupHis top priority when he joined Rouyn-Noranda in the off-season was to meet with Abbandonato to discuss personal and team goals for the 2018-19 season.
"First guy I met during the summer when I got the job. We sat together, chatted, and he told me he wanted to be the best overage player in the Q, he wanted to get a shot at the next level. I told him I wanted him showing a positive example. All the credit to him. So happy and so proud of him," said Pouliot.
Felix Bibeau, Joel Teasdale and Vincent Marleau also scored for the Huskies while Harvey stopped 23 shots.
Samuel Asselin and Raphael Lavoie found the back of the net for the Mooseheads. Alexis Gravel made 31 saves.
"I thought we had a good start, kind of started playing on our heels [after that]," said Mooseheads captain Antoine Morand while fighting back tears.
"Have to give them credit. They never gave up ... Don't even know what to say right now."