Doyle: Generals win battle over Rimouski

The Oshawa Generals have assured themselves of at least a spot in a potential tiebreaker game at the 2015 MasterCard Memorial Cup.

The Ontario Hockey League champions took an early 2-0 lead before picking up a 4-3 victory over the QMJHL champion Rimouski Oceanic in the second game of the tournament. Tobias Lindberg, Michael Dal Colle, Stephen Desrocher and Hunter Smith scored for the Generals in the win. Oshawa went ahead 2-0 in the first period before seeing that lead evaporate before the end of the first on Oceanic goals from Tyler Boland and Alexis Loiseau. But the Generals would never trail in the game, with Smith - a Calgary Flames prospect - scoring the winner near the midway point of the third period.

A win during the round robin of the MasterCard Memorial Cup tournament assures a team of a spot in a tiebreaker game, if necessary, which would be played on Thursday. Two round-robin victories guarantees a spot in at least Friday's semifinal, if not a bye into Sunday's championship game.

The victory also broke a four-game Memorial Cup losing skid for Generals defenceman Dakota Mermis and three-game skid for forward Michael McCarron. The pair were previously members of the London Knights, who went three-and-out during last year's championship as the host club.

Notes:
-Much of the talk following the game was a rare Memorial Cup fight between McCarron and Rimouski's Samuel Morin. Both players are among some of the biggest in the CHL, checking in at 6'6".
-The CHL announced a $500 fine for the WHL champion Kelowna Rockets after a member of the team approached CHL Hockey Operations staff and make negative comments regarding the officiating in Friday night's opener against the host Quebec Remparts.
-The announced attendance for Saturday's game was 8,409.

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