Windsor winger Eric Wellwood celebrates his first period-goal against the Rimouski Oceanic during Memorial Cup action Thursday night in Quebec. (Ryan Remiorz/Canadian Press)Windsor Spitfires winger Dale Mitchell made sure the hometown Rimouski Oceanic would be the first team eliminated from the Memorial Cup.
Mitchell scored a natural hat trick in the third period Thursday night, lifting the Spitfires to a 6-4 come-from-behind victory over the stunned Oceanic during the tiebreaker contest in Rimouski, Que.
Windsor will take the Drummondville Voltigeurs in the semifinal match Friday night (7 p.m. ET).
The winner of that matchup will meet the Kelowna Rockets in the Memorial Cup final Sunday afternoon (4:30 p.m. ET).
Eric Wellwood, Scott Timmins and Greg Nemisz also scored for the Spitfires, with goaltender Andrew Engelage making 17 saves.
Rimouski's SГ©bastien PichГ©, Patrice Cormier, Jordan Caron and Emmanuel Boudreau netted markers while netminder Maxim Gougeon stopped 31 shots.
Mitchell single-handedly won the game for Windsor with a natural hat trick in the first 7:44 of the final period.
Trailing 4-2, Mitchell brought Windsor within one by converting home a rebound just 4:11 into the third.
The Spitfires winger then blasted a wrist shot over Gougeon with Windsor on the power play 1:40 later.
Mitchell ended the comeback with his third goal in the final 20 minutes, sending Windsor on to the semifinal after bouncing on a rebound in front of Gougeon following another Windsor power play.
Nemisz ended the four-goal third with a final power-play goal with only one second remaining.
The teams exploded for five goals in 9:02 span during the first period.
Wellwood got Windsor on the board with his first goal of the tournament at 7:13. Wellwood took a pass from Adam Henrique and beat Gougeon with a nice deke to the glove side.
Rimouski responded 49 seconds later as PichГ©'s one-time point blast rang off the far post.
Before the Quebec crowd revel in the goal, Windsor struck back to take a 2-1 lead 28 seconds later. After a Rimouski turnover in the neutral zone, Timmins let a seemingly harmless wrist shot behind a surprised Gougeon.
The scoring barrage continued with Rimouski tying the contest 2-2 on the power play at 12:47 of the first. Taking advantage of a turnover by Nemisz, Cormier fed a cross-ice pass to Jordan Caron, who buried a shot by Engelage.
The Oceanic took the lead with 3:45 remaining in the first when Boudreau's point shot went through a maze of players before the puck found the back of the net.
The team combined for a seven-goal second period during round-robin play on Sunday, a game Rimouski won 5-4.
Another power-play advantage gave the Oceanic a 4-2 edge with only 2:35 left in the second period. Cormier took a great lead pass from PichГ© before beating Engelage with a terrific move to the forehand.
Leading by two-goal lead heading into the third, Rimouski appeared headed for a showdown with QMJHL rival Voltigeurs until Mitchell's dominating effort shocked the Oceanic.
