Memorial Cup 2013: Fucale stands tall, Drouin and MacKinnon chip in to blow out London

Saskatoon, Sask. –The Halifax Mooseheads' trio of star draft prospects turned heads in their 9-2 victory over the London Knights.

Zachary Fucale stood tall between the pipes, and Nathan MacKinnon and Jonathan Drouin potted three helpers apiece.

Fucale obviously got a lot of help from his teammates, but there were several instances where the 6-foot-1, 176-pounder came up with huge saves early in the contest to keep the momentum in Halifax’s favour.

“I knew going in it was a really important game and I wanted to have a strong start to the game,” said Fucale, who turned away 26 of 28 shots. “My teammates played great and scored some big goals. That took the pressure off me. It’s easier to enjoy the game when you have a big lead.”

Up by five heading into the second, Fucale stuck to his coach’s game plan and kept the score out of his mind to stay focused on not letting London back into the game.

“It is certainly different than playing a 1-0 game,” said NHL Central Scouting Service’s top ranked North American goaltender on having a big lead. “What I try to do during the game is play that same game and stick with what works. You keep playing hard and keep with the team’s system. Whatever the score is, I don’t want to give them anything. I just focus on what’s on the ice.”

The Knights peppered Fucale in the middle frame. He let in a Seth Griffith partial breakaway and a Matt Rupert one-timer, but made 14 key saves to keep the Mooseheads up by five.

“I want to stop everything and keep them from getting any momentum,” Fucale said. “The first goal he came in on me alone and got it by me. And on the second one they had a fast one-timer and I didn’t get over in time to stop it. They are a talented team. They had a good second period.”

Stats wise, the 26-save performance is Fucale’s best night of the MasterCard Memorial Cup. The 17-year-old believes his best showing is yet to come, though.

“I’m happy with the win and how I played,” he said. “Anytime you let in a goal or two, it’s not a perfect game. I still have stuff to improve on and I know I can be better.”

After scoring one goal in his first two games, Drouin had his Memorial Cup coming out party with a three-apple performance. The 5-foot-11, 176-pound winger clicked with Detroit Red Wings prospect Martin Frk, assisting all three of his markers.

“Tonight was better (than the past two games), I was moving my feet more,” said Drouin, who is ranked third among North American skaters by NHL Central Scouting Service. “I was creating battles and creating points along the boards.”

MacKinnon pointed out Drouin’s strong performance goes well beyond the stats sheet.

“He's been working hard,” he said. “You can't just go by points. Some people just go by the stat sheet. He's playing really solid hockey. Maybe he deserves more bounces. He's been getting a couple of third assists out there. Tonight he moved the puck really well. His vision was on display tonight. He set up Marty [Frk] and I for a couple chances and Marty managed to bury."

MacKinnon’s three apples hurdled him over Portland Winterhawks star Ty Rattie for the tournament lead in points. The 5-foot-11, 179-pound centre now has four goals and eight points.

It seems the key to MacKinnon and Drouin’s success against the Knights was moving the puck around and opening up space. They constantly forced London to chase them by making tape-to-tape passes in the offensive zone.

"When you play against [Knights defencemen Olli] Määttä and [Scott] Harrington, you want to spread the ice as much as possible and try to get them to move," MacKinnon said. "They play a man-to-man, you want to move the puck and beat them to the net. We did that. At the same time you don't want to force anything."

Kelly Friesen is a Buzzing the Net columnist for Yahoo! Sports. Follow him on Twitter @KellyFriesen