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Nick Merkley's 2 goals pace Kelowna Rockets to Memorial Cup rout of Rimouski

Kelowna's Nick Merkley (top, centre) had 3 points on Monday (Aaron Bell, OHL Images)
Kelowna's Nick Merkley (top, centre) had 3 points on Monday (Aaron Bell, OHL Images)

Birthday boy Nick Merkley showed why he is highly touted for the NHL draft with two soccer-inspired strikes, helping the Kelowna Rockets look like a reasonable facsimile of a Memorial Cup favourite during a 7-3 rout of the Rimouski Océanic.

Merkley and the Rockets, betraying not a whit of desperation after losing their opener, authored three-goal runs in each of the first two periods in front of a Colisée crowd of 6,981. The playmaking forward, two days removed from celebrating his 18th birthday, scored both of his goals after kicking passes up from his skate blades to his stick blade. Merkley, who is NHL Central Scouting's No. 23-ranked North American skater, scored on the Rockets' first shot of the night 52 seconds into the contest.

The Calgary native also buried for a 5-2 lead at 10:42 of the second period. That tally led to the Océanic relieving goalie Louis-Philip Guindon (five goals on 22 shots), whose streak of eight consecutive post-season road wins was snapped.

Edmonton Oilers top pick Leon Draisaitl (2G-1A, +3), forward Gage Quinney (2G, +1), captain Madison Bowey (1G-2A, +2) also had multi-point efforts for the Rockets (1-1).


For Kelowna, the win sets up a first-place showdown against the Oshawa Generals (2-0) on Tuesday. Oshawa would advance directly to Sunday's final with a win. The Rockets would need to win and have the Océanic (0-2) to defeat the Quebec Remparts (1-1) on Wednesday in order to receive the bye.

The Océanic, which gave up six or more goals for only the third time since Jan. 1, must defeat Quebec on Wednesday in order to advance to a tiebreaker game. Coach-GM Serge Beausoleil's team is 5-0 against the Remparts at the Colisée since both teams finalized their rosters at the QMJHL trade deadline.

The first marker by Merkley (2G-1A, +2) was part of a dream start by the Rockets, who seemed to have played off the rust that marked and marred their 4-3 loss to Quebec on Friday. Merkley went backhand shelf after being led perfectly by a Draisaitl and slicing through two defenders.

At 6:16, a Bowey point shot was deflected by Rimouski's Jan Kostalek — the Quebec League defenceman of the year — and into the net for a 2-0 lead.

At 14:27, Quinney got his first on a setup by Merkley, who was third in the WHL with 70 assists during the regular season.

The Océanic pulled back two goals before the end of the stanza, both facilitated by captain Alexis Loiseau. The 20-year-old slid a pass to fellow overage Christopher Clapperton, who scored into a yawning net at 15:14. Michael Joly scored his first of the tournament exactly three minutes later.

The denouement for Rimouski came early in the second period, though. Sophomore defenceman Simon Bourque was sent off for hooking 1:01 into the period. Quinney scored a fluke goal 51 seconds later when his shot was deflected airborne by Philadelphia Flyers first-rounder Samuel Morin and arced high and out of the reach of Guindon before plopping into the net.

Merkley's second restored the three-goal edge and prompted Beausoleil, who has been rotating goalies since the tailend of the QMJHL final, to put in Philippe Desrosiers. Barely 2½ minutes later, 16-year-old rookie Dillon Dubé threaded a pass into the slot for an oncoming Draisaitl, who scored for a 6-2 lead.

Toronto Maple Leafs first-rounder Frédérik Gauthier and Draisaitl traded special teams goals 40 seconds apart in the third period. Gauthier scored a power-play goal before Draisaitl immediately replied with a power move from his off wing for a short-handed goal, Kelowna's 11th of the post-season.

Kelowna is attempting to become the first WHL team since the 1994 Kelowna Blazers to win a Memorial Cup staged in Quebec. The franchise lost the 2009 final in Rimouski to the Windsor Spitfires, whose coaching staff included Oshawa bench boss D.J. Smith.

Rimouski will have to win Wedneday and win a tiebreaker game on Thursday in order to reach Friday's semifinal. The last two tournaments in Quebec were each won by teams that were forced to the tiebreaker, with the Spitfires becoming the first to do so in '09 before the Shawinigan Cataractes matched that in 2012.

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.