The Seattle Thunderbirds will play for a Memorial Cup title for the first time in franchise history after a 4-1 win over the Peterborough Petes in Friday’s semi-final.

Kyle Crnkovic led the way with a goal and an assist as the T-Birds set up a rematch with the Quebec Remparts on Sunday.

“It’s obviously special,” Head Coach Matt O’Dette said. “But it’s not done yet, we wanna win the ultimate prize. That was our goal from day one. Proud of the group [and] the drive to get here but we got one more job to do.”

Brad Lambert, Colton Dach, and Nico Myatovic had the other goals for Seattle, while Brennan Othmann scored the Petes only goal of the game.

“Just try to live in the moment,” Crnkovic, who was traded to Seattle by the Saskatoon Blades last August, said. “When I got traded here, they had a good thing going, just tried to hop on board.”

“It’s been a lot of fun and it’s not over yet, try to get the last one done.”

The Remparts who have won two Memorial Cup titles – in 1971 as the original franchise and 2006 as the revived franchise – earned a spot in the final after opening the tournament with consecutive wins over the Kamloops Blazers – who were eliminated by Peterborough in Thursday’s tiebreaker – and Seattle.

The Thunderbirds doubled up the Petes in the round robin though the OHL champions did not go down without a fight, as they beat Quebec to force the tiebreaker game.

Several Petes players remained on the ice following the loss, embracing one another and some taking a knee with their heads down.

“It’s hard,” Peterborough head coach Rob Wilson said. “There’s a lot of emotion, they put so much into this.”

“It hurts now, the guys are hurting but they’ll look back and be proud of their achievement.”

Lambert broke the deadlock with just 4:28 left in the second period as he banged in a loose puck for his first of the competition.

#GoJetsGo prospect Brad Lambert breaks the deadlock in the #MemorialCup semi-final! pic.twitter.com/AyTE31yQkD

— Canadian Hockey League (@CHLHockey) June 3, 2023

Dach then made it 2-0 just 88 seconds into the third as he buried Crnkovic’s clever pass into a wide-open net before Othmann cut the deficit in half at 2:41 with a finesse finish out front after Owen Beck fed him down low.

Crnkovic restored the two-goal lead at 9:33 with his tournament leading fifth goal before Myatovic, a Prince George native, scored into the empty-net with 2:09 left to seal the win.

The @SeattleTbirds‘ Kyle Crnkovic has his fifth of the #MemorialCup! pic.twitter.com/DF8rrnOrEN

— Canadian Hockey League (@CHLHockey) June 3, 2023

“I don’t think we had too much left in the tank and they were trying, they were battling,” Wilson added.

“Othmann gets that goal and we still feel we’re in it and ‘Can we do it again?’ type of thing but unfortunately it’s one of those things.”

Petes goaltender Michael Simpson, the OHL playoff MVP, recorded his second 43-save game in as many nights. He allowed three goals on the night in a losing effort, though it took 31 shots before he finally let in a goal.

Seattle’s Thomas Milic, the WHL playoff MVP, turned aside 27 of 28 shots he faced for his tournament leading third win.

Nothing but respect between two Playoff MVP goaltenders!❤️@SeattleTBirds | @TSN_Sports | @OHLHockey | #MemorialCup pic.twitter.com/pkwSxK11RE

— The WHL (@TheWHL) June 3, 2023

Jared Davidson had a pair of assists on the night while Myatovic has an assist to go with his goal.

Sunday’s championship game is a 4 p.m. puck drop from Sandman Centre. Pre-game coverage on RadioNL gets underway with Jon Keen at 3:30 p.m. Paul James will also be broadcasting from The Shark Club from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, and 1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Sunday.

You can find a schedule of events and more of RadioNL’s coverage of the Memorial Cup here.

HIGHLIGHTS

– With files from The Canadian Press and the CHL