Photo credit – Pederson Photographic
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The Dauphin Kings are going directly to the Centennial Cup semifinals.
Brayden Dube filled the net with three goals for his first national championship hat-trick in a 6-1 win against the Soo Thunderbirds.
With the win, Dauphin ended the round-robin with three wins in their four games and they finished on top of Group B. That means the team will go directly to the semifinal which is slated for Saturday.
Dauphin jumped out of the gate on fire as they racked up 14 of the first 16 shots of the game and Brayden Dube scored both goals in the first to give Dauphin a 2-0 lead after 20 minutes. Dauphin scored three times in the second period with Nick Braun, Klim Georgiev and Colby Jaquet finding the back of the net as Dauphin increased their lead to 5-0 after 40 minutes.
Soo did get on the board early in the third as Kelsey Ouellet scored the Thunderbirds lone goal just 27 seconds in. Then with less than 10 minutes left, Dube took a beautiful pass from Georgiev and he skated down the right wing and snapped a shot past Noah Zeppa to complete the hat-trick and finish a 6-1 win.
Carson Cherepak was solid once again as he made 17 saves in the win. Cherepak’s goals-against average is sparkling at 0.98 and his .968 save percentage is also the best in the tournament.