Anthony Richard’s OT winner caps a classic this Memorial Cup needed

LONDON, Ont. — When you the name Richard and wear No. 9 in Quebec, clearly you're meant to decide a game that affirmed what's great about the Memorial Cup.

Truth be known, for nearly two periods Edmonton and Val-d'Or engaged in a protracted feeling-out process that only added to the vibe this tournament has been rather dry and bland, too corporate, too much gap between Guelph and everyone else. Then it picked up, with a disputed overtime-forcing goal, a pinged crossbar in the first breaths of bonus hockey, and finally, 5-foot-8, 168-pound Richard ending it 1:15 into double overtime. Lukewarm start, sizzling finish, one team getting the final bounce: that's major junior hockey.

Start with Richard, the 17-year-old who furnishes complementary scoring for Val-d'Or with 25 goals in the regular season. All night long, he was sniffing around the net, before finally getting the first assist on Samuel Henley's tying goal with 4:11 left. Then he pounced on a puck that had skipped past Griffin Reinhart to get the winner.

No wonder he wears the Rocket's deified digit.

"Since I was young, I got the number," Anthony Richard said. "It was my choice. I love wearing it and it gives me a lot of confidence.

"We were excited to have a chance to play another overtime because it was a chance to prove we are better than Edmonton," Richard said. "We played sharp in the first overtime and the bounce. We had to stay tight defensively and help make Antoine [Bibeau] make the saves [47 on the night].

Richard's goal was the second of the night by a diminutive Foreur who got a breakaway thanks to a fortuitous bounce. In the second, a pass hit a broken stick and ricocheted by Edmonton's Ashton Sautner to put Pierre-Maxime Poudrier on a breakaway. He scored to tie it 2-2.

Then there was a possible missed icing call on Henley's equalizer. Anthony Mantha nicked the puck from Reinhart and, two passes later, Henley had tied a game where Val-d'Or had just treaded water for the first 50 minutes. Then the Oil Kings' Brett Pollock hit the crossbar early in overtime.

"I thought it was going to be over when Pollock ripped one off vthe crossbar," Foreurs defenceman Randy Gazzola said.

That just added to the drama. Edmonton's now suffered an own goal and goal that was aided by some broken lumber.

"We talk about it being a game of bounces," said Oil Kings coach Derek Laxdal, whose team will either get London on Thursday or Val-d'Or on Friday, pending whether the Knights can stay alive by beating Guelph on Wednesday night.

"Second goal, puck hits a broken stick and bounces, they get it and score. The third goal we thought there should have been icing call, there wasn't, Griff [Reinhart] misses a clearing attempt and it ends up in our net. The fourth goal there was another bounce over a stick."

Val-d'Or now awaits the news on whether star defenceman Guillaume Gélinas will play on Friday and who will be its opponent. It's only going to get harder from here on out.

"We've knocked off both of them, Edmonton and London," Gazzola said. "So they're going to be gunning for us."

The Foreurs allowed 150 shots in the round-robin and went 2-1. It is not always the team that deserves to win who does in this tournament. Edmonton, with better puck luck, might be 3-0 and sorting through tourism brochures. Instead it's looking at having the long route to Sunday.

"Right now we know our fate," Laxdal said. "The kids are tired. Both teams battled. But at the end of the day I thought we deserved a better fate.

"We have to respond and be more resilient. The first 60 minutes we probably played 35. Bibeau was outstanding."

It is some story that Val-d'Or is penning in both official languages. It went to overtime seven times in the Quebec League playoffs. Facing it in the Memorial Cup held no terror for them, especially on a night when Gélinas' injury had many people writing them off early.

"Those seven, eight games we played in the Q playoffs, that's huge," Richard said. "But we're confident in overtime and we don't panic. That is key in overtime."

So is fate, but it is fickle.

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