Mooseheads lose but advance to Memorial Cup final

HALIFAX — Not every victory brings joy. Not in a four-team, round-robin tournament.

Jakub Lauko scored the winner with 54 seconds to go in regulation as the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies beat the Halifax Mooseheads 4-3 on Wednesday in the final preliminary game of the Memorial Cup.

Despite the Huskies pulling out the win, it’ll be the Mooseheads heading directly to the championship game, while Rouyn-Noranda has to settle for a semifinal matchup with the Guelph Storm.

“It’s strange winning and not being happy, it’s tough to explain,” said Huskies coach Mario Pouliot.

Any one of Halifax, Rouyn-Noranda or Guelph could have earned a berth in Sunday’s tournament final based on Wednesday’s outcome. All three clubs finished with 2-1 records, but the Mooseheads got the tiebreaker through a drawn-out mathematical formula.

The Western Hockey League champion Prince Albert Raiders (0-3) were eliminated on Tuesday.

All Halifax needed to do to advance was win outright or lose 4-3. Rouyn-Noranda had to win 4-0 or by five or more goals to move on, while the Storm still had a chance if the game finished by any other score.

“Knowing what everybody knows, obviously I hope I never have to go through that again. It’s really not easy,” said Mooseheads coach Éric Veilleux.

The Mooseheads players left their phones in Veilleux’s office Wednesday morning to avoid social media so that all the potential scenarios didn’t creep into their heads before the puck even dropped.

“I give credit to our players for trusting the coaching staff,” Veilleux said.

“It says a lot about what type of individuals we deal with.”