Silvertips storm past Chicoutimi to Memorial Cup Championship

Published 12:48 am Saturday, May 30, 2026

It all comes down to Sunday.

With their 6-1 win against the Chicoutimi Saguenéens in the Memorial Cup semifinal at Prospera Place on Friday, the Everett Silvertips punched their ticket to the franchise’s first-ever Memorial Cup Championship.

“We got to treat it like it’s our last game of the season,” Everett forward Carter Bear told reporters in Kelowna. “It’s our last game with each other. We’re never going to play with this group of guys again, so got to make it a good one. And obviously it’s a special game for sure. Memorial Cup Final, we sometimes dream about these when we’re a kid, watch these tournaments growing up, and it’s definitely exciting, for sure.”

Just two days after he was a late scratch in Wednesday’s round-robin finale against the Kelowna Rockets — and one day after his 17th birthday — Silvertips defenseman Landon DuPont returned with two goals, including the game-winner.

“We had a pretty good feeling. I think he was in a good space,” Everett coach Steve Hamilton said about DuPont’s availability. “Wanted to give him an opportunity to get a skate in, and he said he was good. So trust him, and turned him loose.”

Less than two minutes after the Saguenéens tied it 1-1 in the first period, Shea Busch rolled the puck around the boards to Bear behind the Chicoutimi net. Bear flung it back out through the middle, where DuPont picked it up in the high slot and ripped it past Saguenéens goalie Lucas Beckman to give Everett a 2-1 lead at 13:59 of the first. Despite slipping while taking the shot and falling forward on the release, he managed to snipe it into the top left corner.

“I hate watching our team play. I hate being in the crowd. I just wanted to be out there,” DuPont said. “And to get one in the first (period) almost felt like a relief. I was just super happy to be back and playing, and to get those two goals felt good.”

The Silvertips proceeded to outshoot Chicoutimi 18-6 in the second period while tacking on three more goals to put the game out of reach. Bear pushed it to 3-1 at 5:39, going off the crossbar after slipping behind the defense and receiving a stretch pass off the wall from Nolan Chastko during a delayed penalty.

“He’s just so valuable to our team,” DuPont said about Chastko, who has slotted in at defense as he did for a stretch during the regular season. “He’s one of those guys that, he could play goalie. Like you could tell him to play goalie and he’d get in there, and he’d probably do a pretty good job at it, too. We just have guys like that that’ll step up.”

Zackary Shantz secured a rebound of a Jesse Heslop one-timer off the post, attempted to feed him again, then punched in the third chance off a defender’s leg to make it 4-1 at 12:35.

DuPont extended it to 5-1 with his second goal of the night, a one-timer in the left circle off a pass from Matias Vanhanen during a 4-on-3 power play at 18:38, and Julius Miettinen closed it out with another power-play goal just 45 seconds into the third period. The WHL Playoff MVP mimed throwing a monkey off his back after scoring his first goal of the Memorial Cup.

Anders Miller made 25 saves in the win, the lone goal allowed coming on an incredibly skilled and patient solo effort from Saguenéens defenseman Tomas Lavoie, who cut through two defenders across the Everett zone and got around Miettinen’s outstretched stick before firing a shot in and out of the cage at 12:01 of the first period. Jaxsin Vaughan scored the opening goal for the Silvertips at 7:56.

Everett’s penalty kill stepped up in two opportunities, which both happened in the first half of the first period. The Silvertips allowed just one shot on goal across the two opportunities, shutting down a power-play unit that ranked among the best in Canadian Hockey League history during the regular season (32.7%).

Raising their game in the semifinal, Everett is hoping to save its best for last in the championship. Waiting on the other side is the Kitchener Rangers after sweeping the round-robin, which included a 6-2 win against the Silvertips on May 25.

Hamilton said he liked most of the things his team did against Kitchener, minus the turnovers that allowed the Rangers to pull away. Everett will have another opportunity, and this time it’s for all the marbles.

“When the path leads back together, now you got the opportunity you want and have been looking forward to,” Hamilton said. “These guys have earned (it), and that’s really— you know, the most important thing is finding a way to get back here and play these guys again, and I think we’ve always learned from our missteps and taken out of it what we’ve needed, and then find a way to reposition ourselves. … It’s the strength of our team.”