Silvertips capture first Memorial Cup round-robin win

Published 12:17 am Sunday, May 24, 2026

As soon as Zackary Shantz retrieved the puck out of the left corner, he was surrounded by three defenders.

The Everett Silvertips forward tried to fling it out into the middle of the Chicoutimi Saguenéens’ zone with the two sides engaged in their first round-robin matchup in the 2026 Memorial Cup at Prospera Place in Kelowna, British Columbia on Saturday.

The puck rolled off the heel of Shantz’s stick and right to Chicoutimi defenseman Alexis Bernier, but before the Seattle Kraken prospect could turn the other way, Silvertips forward Jesse Heslop swooped in on the forecheck. He poked the puck loose behind the net, and Saguenéens goalie Lucas Beckman pivoted to look behind the right post, anticipating Heslop’s arrival with it.

He saw Heslop, but not the puck.

Instead, Heslop applied the brakes and fed Shantz next to the left post, where he had an easy tap-in to give Everett a 3-2 lead at 13:35 of the second period.

“Just an unreal play by an unreal player,” Shantz told reporters in Kelowna after the game. “It’s pretty easy to put that one in.”

Fifty seconds later, a Matias Vanhanen forecheck led to a Silvertips takeaway in the offensive zone, where Landon DuPont fed Carter Bear on a cross-slot pass to double the lead.

That one-two punch put Everett ahead for good, as the Silvertips captured the franchise’s first-ever win at the Memorial Cup with a 5-3 victory against Chicoutimi.

“For a lot of us it’s our first Memorial Cup, and you don’t really know what to expect, obviously, playing a team from the (QMJHL), but I think we handled them well,” DuPont said. “Came with a good push and we had our ups and downs, but ultimately I think we played a pretty solid game.”

It did not take long for Everett to get started, as Shantz poked a puck away from Liam Lefebvre, and Heslop corralled it with a spinning backhand shot on goal that somehow slipped past Beckman to make it 1-0 at 1:14 of the first period.

“Longtime Silvertip, through and through,” Silvertips coach Steve Hamilton said. “Great start for us. (Heslop’s) a fabric guy around here, and has been for a long time. So probably some symbolism in that. He’s been here, he’s been through some playoff disappointments, so obviously to be here is special for him as well as the rest of the group.”

Despite the quick start for Everett, the Saguenéens scored the next two goals to pull ahead by 5:39 of the second period.

Christophe Berthelot knotted it 1-1 at 9:13 of the first period, scoring from in front after a shot from the point bounced off Nolan Chastko’s leg, and Alex Huang grabbed the lead by going bar down from the right circle early in the second.

Chicoutimi did not hold the lead for long, as just 33 seconds later, Lukas Kaplan trickled a shot through Beckman from the left side on a 3-on-2 rush.

“It’s part of our identity,” Hamilton said. “Steady hand on the wheel. We often talk about response and how important it is to talk and breathe after moments, and not feel that tension, and we responded right away, which was good. And then really had a solid push, and that’s a key component for us.”

Shantz and Bear went back-to-back to give Everett the lead, and through two periods, the Silvertips held a 21-13 shots on goal advantage. They did not sit back in the third. Despite not scoring until an empty-netter in the final minute, they strung together a handful of close chances down the stretch.

Goalie Anders Miller made a sliding split save on Emile Guite, who broke free in the offensive zone at 16:22 of the third period, but the Saguenéens did not bring it back within one until 19:32 at 6-on-4.

With Beckman pulled for the extra attacker, Bear committed Everett’s first penalty of the game at 18:55, closing his hand on a puck in the air that he was trying to swat away. Chicoutimi capitalized with a goal from Maxim Masse, but the Silvertips avoided the Saguenéens’ lethal power-play (31.8% success in the QMJHL playoffs) when it mattered.

“I thought our discipline this game was excellent,” Hamilton said. “We stayed out of things we didn’t need to be involved in. There wasn’t much after the whistle. Our guys play hard, hear the whistle, clean break. It’s by design, and our discipline was excellent.”

Just seven seconds after Masse cut it to 4-3, Vanhanen put the game out of reach with an empty-netter seven seconds later.

“We came with a good push, and they pushed back,” DuPont said. “But we just stayed resilient and stuck to our details, and a couple big goals from some of our guys, and you know, that’s the game-breaker.”

With its win, Everett will have an opportunity to break the tie atop the Memorial Cup round-robin standings when it faces Kitchener on Monday. The Rangers defeated the host Kelowna Rockets 5-0 on Friday to kick off the tournament.