Western Capitals off to Centennial Cup final

 

The hometown magic continues for the Summerside Western Capitals.

Backed by a roaring crowd at Credit Union Place, the Western Capitals punched their ticket to the Centennial Cup final with an impressive 5-2 semifinal victory over Collège Français de Longueuil on Saturday night.  

Summerside controlled the pace early and opened the scoring midway through the first period when Henry Ouellet buried a feed from Matthew MacLean and Brennan Murphy at 9:10 to give the hosts a 1-0 lead heading into the intermission. The Caps outshot Longueuil 15-4 in the opening frame and carried that momentum into the second.  

The Quebec champions responded in the middle period, however, as Mathieu Tessier tied the game at 11:51 before the Capitals answered on the power play. Matthew MacLean restored the Summerside lead with a man-advantage marker just over two minutes later, wiring home a shot off a setup from Simon Mullen. Longueuil would not go away quietly, evening the game once again when Yoan Noiseux scored late in the second to make it 2-2 after 40 minutes.  

The third period belonged entirely to the Capitals.

Just 2:02 into the final frame, Elliott Mullen capitalized on another power play opportunity to put Summerside back in front for good. Only 35 seconds later, Brennan Murphy extended the lead to 4-2, finishing off a rush created by Maverick Hayes and Ryder Howatt and sending the Credit Union Place crowd into a frenzy.  

From there, the Caps locked things down defensively while goaltender Kolton Bourret turned aside 21 of 23 shots to earn the win. Jordan Shaw sealed the victory with an empty-net goal in the final minutes as Summerside closed out a dominant 40-shot performance.  

Henry Ouellet, Brennan Murphy and Matthew MacLean each recorded a goal and an assist for the Western Capitals, while Maverick Hayes chipped in with two helpers. Summerside also went 2-for-5 on the power play and limited Longueuil to 0-for-3 with the man advantage.  

With the win, the Western Capitals will face the Niverville Nighthawks in the 2026 Centennial Cup final on Sunday May 17 at 7 p.m. AST.

Summerside and Niverville met on the first day of the tournament in the preliminary round on May 7. Niverville won the game 5-4 in overtime.

Full game summary can be found here.