Quebec Remparts open Memorial Cup with 4-3 win over Kelowna

QUEBEC CITY — Appropriately, the Quebec Remparts' most important goal came directly off a missed Anthony Duclair chance.

The Memorial Cup hosts, only 72 hours removed from their double-overtime defeat in Game 7 of the President's Cup final, moved the puck and their legs with more alacrity more most of their 4-3 win against the three-time-zones-from-home Kelowna Rockets on the opening night of the Memorial Cup at Le Colisee. Ryan Graves' short-handed goal 2:08 into the third that the Remparts enough cushion to hang on prevail was a microcosm of that.

The Rockets, playing their first game in nine days, had a chance to tie on the power play early in the third. After Quebec cleared the zone and Duclair, snakebitten on several chances throughout the first two periods, won a puck race with 17-year-old Nick Merkley to earn oan breakaway, Graves got the jump on Rockets captain Madison Bowey in transition. When Duclair  was stopped by Jackson Whistle, Graves fell heir to a juicy rebound and buried it for the two-goal lead.

Graves' goal came while Edmonton Oilers first-rounder and Rockets star Leon Draisaitl was serving a 10-minute misconduct assessed at the beginning of the period. It ultimately provided Quebec enough cushion to hang on. Gage Quinney scored on a redirection during a 5-on-3 power play with 7:17 remaining. The teams traded talies during a frantic final minute, with Adam Erne's empty-netter preceding a goal from Leon Draisaitl than kept the Rockets' flame flickering until the final buzzer, but Zach Fucale made the lead stand up.

"The first one is the biggest of the first three," Graves told Sportsnet. "This was a big one for us tonight. They have some top-end talent with Draisaitl, [Team Canada members Josh] Morrissey and [Madison] Bowey. We knew they were going to come in strongly and we played a great game."

Quebec, whose next action is Sunday against the Oshawa Generals, got its first two goals through 19-year-old Russian playmaker Vladimir Tkachev. Tkachev, whom the Edmonton Oilers attempted to sign in October, slid a pass to Nikolas Brouillaird for a goal on a slapshot 5:18 into the game, warming up a crowd of 9,497 at the Colisee.

Duclair duffed a pair of 10-bell chances in the second. The Arizona Coyotes prospect had a role in the 2-0 goal 13:22 into the frame, screening Jackson Whistle as a point shot from Matt Murphy redirected into the net. Murphy was freed up to shoot after Tkachev worked the puck back to the point.

Kelowna replied later in the frame on a short-handed goal from Merkley, which was the Rockets' 10th man-down marker since the start of the playoffs.

Quebec had the run of play for most of the first 40 minutes, despite Erne being limited due to aggravating a wrist injury while checking Draisaitl on the first shift. Whistle came up with a breakaway save on Duclair in the final seconds of the opening frame to keep his team within a goal.

Fucale, who owns a world junior gold medal and Memorial Cup ring with the 2013 Halifax Mooseheads, was sharp across all three periods with 25 saves.

The Remparts became the first host team to win its opening game of the tournament since the 2008 Kitchener Rangers.

Rimouski and Oshawa meet on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. ET/1:30 p.m. PT. Kelowna has a two-day break before facing Rimouski on Monday.

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