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Oshawa Generals outlast Kelowna, move to Memorial Cup final

Cole Cassels celebrates the first Generals goal (Aaron Bell, OHL Images)
Cole Cassels celebrates the first Generals goal (Aaron Bell, OHL Images)

The Oshawa Generals authored a three-minute penalty kill, including a minute with two of their best checkers in the box, to outlast the Kelowna Rockets 2-1 in a game that might be an intriguing prologue for the Memorial Cup final.

The Rockets had Dakota Mermis and Cole Cassels penalized 60 seconds apart in the final 4½ minutes, but goalie Ken Appleby rose to the occasion with a skein of his saves to deny star  Leon Draisaitl and teammates the equalizer. With the win, the Generals (3-0) advanced directly to Sunday's final and will  have four days of rest and relaxation as they attempt to avoid the fate of the 2012 London Knights and 2014 Guelph Storm, who each earned the bye but lost the final.

All three Generals wins have been by one-goal margins.

Cassels also contributed his first goal of the tournament during the second period.

Along with the missed opportunity on the extended power play, Kelowna can also rue  two glorious missed opportunities for tying goals by Rourke Chartier, a 48-goal scorer in the regular season who's been limited physically in the playoffs. Chartier was denied with a sprawling stick save by Appleby late in the second period, then hit the crossbar after Kelowna had spent the first 74 seconds of the third in the attacking zone.

Sophomore star Nick Merkley, who leads Kelowna with five points in the tournament, also hit the post with just fewer than six minutes left in the third period.

The Rockets (1-2) will likely go directly to Friday's semifinal regardless of the outcome of Wednesday's round-robin finale between Quebec (1-1) and Rimouski (0-2). In the event of a Rimouski win that forges a three-way tie, Kelowna would likely earn the tiebreaker by virtue of goal differential.

Along with the efforts of rotating centres Cassels and Michael McCarron, Generals overage defencemen Mermis and Josh Brown also pitched in on the defensive dragnet that helped limit Draisaitl to just three shots on goal. Appleby handled 20-of-21 shots, including all 11 in the third period.

Oshawa more than doubled Kelowna, 12-5, on the shot counter during the scoreless opening period. The McCarron-Michael Dal Colle-Matt Mistele line generated at least three gold-plated chances, including one in the final 30 seconds where McCarron hit the goal post.

At 4:15 of the second, the Rockets defence became static in its own zone after a sustained Oshawa push. Defenceman Dakota Mermis threaded a cross-ice pass to Cassels for the Vancouver Canucks prospect's first goal of the tournament.

The Rockets, one of the fleetest and most potent teams in major junior hockey, exerted pressure late in the sandwich stanza. That boomeranged at 17:16 when defenceman Joe Gatenby was caught pinching from the right point. Ottawa Senators prospect Tobias Lindberg tore away 2-on-1, made a toe-drag move on overage defenceman Cole Martin and bisected the five-hole of goalie Jackson Whistle.

The Rockets seized on a rare opportunity to use their speed to get a response goal 55 seconds later. Gage Quinney scored his tournament-high fourth goal off the rush after taking a lead pass from Tyson Baillie.

A Rimouski win over Quebec on Wednesday would create a three-way tie for second. Kelowna, with goal differential of plus-2, has a leg up over Quebec (even) and Rimouski (-5).

Buzzing The Net is hosting a livechat of all Memorial Cup games.

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet.