Mooseheads into at least the Memorial Cup semifinals after pounding Knights

SASKATOON (CP) — Martin Frk had a hat trick and an assist and Darcy Ashley also scored twice and had an assist of his own Tuesday as the Halifax Mooseheads hammered the London Knights 9-2 in the final roundrobin game for both teams at the MasterCard Memorial Cup.

Stefan Fournier added a goal and an assist, while Brent Andrews, Ryan Falkenham and Luca Ciampini also scored for Halifax (2-1), which booked a spot in at least Friday’s semifinal with a clinical offensive performance.

Zachary Fucale made 26 saves for the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League champions, who led 5-0 after the first period and 8-2 after the second before taking their foot off the gas in the third. Top prospects Nathan MacKinnon and Jonathan Drouin each added three assists.

The focus of the tournament now turns to Wednesday’s final round-robin game between the Western Hockey League champion Portland Winterhawks (11) and the host Saskatoon Blades (1-1). A victory for Portland puts the Mooseheads directly into Sunday’s championship game, while a Saskatoon win means the Blades will go right to the final, with Halifax having to settle for a spot in the semifinal.

Seth Griffith and Matt Rupert had the goals for the Knights (12), who will take on the loser of Saskatoon- Portland in Thursday’s tiebreaker. The winner of that one moves on to the semi.

Jake Patterson, who was making his first start of the tournament, stopped SIX of 11 shots for London in a disastrous first period before being replaced by Anthony Stolarz at the start of second. Stolarz was pulled after giving up five goals on 31 shots in the Ontario Hockey League champions’ 6-3 loss to Portland on Monday. He finished with 22 saves on Tuesday.