2017 – Windsor Spitfires
The Windsor Spitfires were the host team for the 2017 Memorial Cup. But after they lost a first-round playoff series, questions were raised as to how they would handle the down time.
It seems they did just fine, thank you.
Rocky Thompson, in his second season as the Spitfires’ head coach, staged what was in effect a 44-day training camp, and they were ready when the other teams — the Erie Otters, Saint John Sea Dogs and Seattle Thunderbirds — arrived at the WFCU Centre.
All the Spitfires did was go 4-0 in winning their third championship.
The tournament opened on May 19 with the hosts edging Saint John, 3-2, on Aaron Luchuk’s goal at 15:12 of the third period. Two days later, the Spitfires buried Seattle, 7-1, behind two goals from each of Graham Knott and Julius Nattinen, and 24 saves from Michael DiPietro. On May 24, in a clash of unbeaten teams, Jeremiah Addison scored three times and DiPietro stopped 33 shots in Windsor’s 4-2 victory over Erie.
The Otters had beaten Seattle, 4-2, and Saint John, 12-5. Dylan Strome set a single-game points record with seven, including four goals, in the victory over the Sea Dogs. The previous record of six had been shared by Joe Contini (Hamilton Fincups, 1976); Guy Rouleau (Hull Olympiques, twice in 1986); and Mike Mathers (Kamloops Blazers, 1992). Erie’s Taylor Raddysh had two goals and four assists against Saint John as the Otters set a single-game record with 12 goals. That broke the record of 11 that had been shared by the Quebec Remparts (1974) and Regina Pats (1980).
In the other round-robin game, Saint John beat Seattle, 7-0, behind 31 saves from Callum Booth. Seattle (0-3) was done.
On May 26, the Otters doubled the Sea Dogs, 6-3, in the semi-final.
Two days later, the Spitfires erased a 3-2 deficit to beat the Otters, 4-3. Knott tied the score on a power play at 14:53 of the second period, and Luchuk’s goal, at 5:07 of the third, snapped the tie. Jeremy Bracco scored once and set up two others, including the winner. DiPietro stopped 32 shots.
“My guys are amazing,” Thompson said. “We saw what they’ve gone through here. We witnessed what they had to go through during that break. It’s an amazing feeling and an amazing thing that those guys did.
“Everybody bought in no matter who it was, staff, management, ownership and the players. They’re champions for a reason – they’re amazing.”
Windsor’s Warren Rychel became the third general manager to win three Memorial Cups, joining Matt Leyden (Oshawa Generals, 1939, 1940, 1944) and Bob Brown (Kamloops, 1992, 1994, 1995).
Interestingly, three of the head coaches — Thompson, Erie’s Kris Knoblauch and Seattle’s Steve Konowalchuk — played and coached in the WHL, and all joined pro teams over the summer. Meanwhile, Flynn left Saint John, then joined the Portland Winterhawks as an assistant coach.
2017 Windsor Spitfires:
Jeremiah Addison, Tyler Angle, Brock Baier, Luke Boka, Jeremy Bracco, Logan Brown, Jalen Chatfield, Connor Corcoran, Mario Culina, Sean Day, Cristiano DiGiacinto, Michael DiPietro, Graham Knott, Adam Laishram, Aaron Luchuk, Hayden McCool, Austin McEneny, Julius Nattinen, Tyler Nother, Chris Playfair, Cole Purboo, Daniel Robertson, Mikhail Sergachev, Logan Stanley, Gabriel Vilardi, Warren Rychel (Manager), Rocky Thompson (Coach).
NHL: Rychel won a Stanley Cup in 1996 with the Colorado Avalanche and played 8 NHL seasons with 5 different teams.
2016 – London Knights
Would anyone be able to stop the London Knights?
That was the $64,000 question as the 2016 Memorial Cup began in Red Deer’s ENMAX Centrium, the first time the tournament had been held in Alberta since 1974 in Calgary.
The OHL-champion Knights came in on a 13-game winning streak, not having lost since the first round of the playoffs.
Trying to get in their way would be the Brandon Wheat Kings, Rouyn-Noranda Huskies and the host Rebels.
London was making its fourth appearance in the tournament in five years, but had come up short in 2012, 2013 and 2014.
The Knights served notice on May 20, when they got two goals and three assists from Mitch Marner, and two of each from Christian Dvorak, to open with a 6-2 victory over the Rebels.
The Knights went on to finish 3-0 in the round-robin. They beat Brandon, 9-1, getting three goals and an assist from Dvorak, and four assists from Marner. One night later, London dumped Rouyn-Noranda, 5-2. Marner had four more assists, with Dvorak getting a goal and an assist.
The Wheat Kings ended up 0-3 and eliminated after losing 5-3 to the Huskies and 2-1 to the Rebels on Evan Polei’s goal at 3:50 of overtime.
Red Deer, which also beat Rouyn-Noranda, 5-2, finished 2-1, while the Huskies wound up at 1-2.
On May 27, the Huskies scored a pair of power-play goals and bounced the Rebels, 3-1, in the semifinal.
The Huskies pushed the Knights in the final, too. But, in the end, London won it, 3-2, on two goals from Matthew Tkachuk, the second one at 7:49 of overtime.
Tkachuk gave London a 1-0 lead at 9:19 of the second period. The Huskies went ahead 2-1 on goals from Francis Perron, at 9:34 of the second, and Julien Nantel, at 9:13 of the third period. Dvorak tied the game at 15:49 of the third with his seventh goal.
Of the winner, Tkachuk said: “It actually might have hit off (Dvorak’s) back. It changed directions a little bit . . . doesn’t matter, we’ll both take it.”
Dvorak added: “I felt something hit me but I don’t really care, winning’s all that matters.”
Marner, who had put up 116 points in 57 regular-season games and 44 more in 18 playoff games, added 14 points, 12 of them assists, in Red Deer. He led the tournament in scoring, and he was saluted as the MVP.
London ran its winning streak to 17 games as it won its second championship — it also won by going 4-0 as the OHL champion and the host team in 2005.
“It’s hard enough to get here, but it’s a lot harder to win it,” London head coach Dale Hunter said. “To come here and win four straight is unbelievable, just like 2005.”
2016 London Knights:
Aaron Berisha, Daniel Bernhardt, Evan Bouchard, Brendan Burke, Brandon Crawley, Christian Dvorak, Alex Formenton, Jacob Graves, Chad Heffernan, Aiden Jamieson, Max Jones, Olli Juolevi, Owen MacDonald, Mitchell Marner, Chris Martenet, Nicolas Mattinen, Victor Mete, Tyler Parsons, JJ Piccinich, Cliff Pu, Kole Sherwood, Robert Thomas, Matthew Tkachuk, Emanuel Vella, Chandler Yakimowicz, Basil McRae (Manager), Dale Hunter (Coach).
NHL: After being named CHL Player of the Year, Marner went on to set a Toronto Maple Leaf record for most assists by a rookie with 42. Hunter played 20 years in the NHL for Quebec, Washington, and Colorado, amassing over 1000 career points.
2015 – Oshawa Generals
Anthony Cirelli was a longshot to make the Oshawa Generals prior to the 2014-15 OHL season.
So what were the odds of Cirelli being the hero of the 2015 Memorial Cup?
By the time Cirelli, who is from Etobicoke, Ont., arrived at Oshawa’s 2014 training camp, he had been through two OHL drafts without being selected.
A few months later, he was the toast of the town.
The Generals, under head coach D.J. Smith, put together a 108-point regular season, then went 16-5 in winning the playoff title. That got them a berth in the Memorial Cup tournament, along with the Kelowna Rockets, Rimouski Oceanic and host Quebec Remparts.
This would mark the first time in the history of the four-team tournament that each participant had won a Memorial Cup. In fact, Oshawa had won four times, most recently in 1990.
The Generals went 3-0 in the round-robin, winning three one-goal games. They beat the Oceanic, 4-3, on Hunter Smith’s goal at 9:24 of the third period; got past the Remparts, 5-4, when Stephen Desrocher scored at 18:07 of OT; and edged the Rockets, 2-1, on second-period goals from Cole Cassels and Tobias Lindberg.
That guaranteed the Generals a spot in the final and four days off between games.
The other three teams each finished 1-2 — Quebec beat Kelowna, 4-3; the Rockets dumped the Oceanic, 7-3; and the Remparts blanked the Oceanic, 4-0, behind 27 saves from Philippe Desrosiers.
The tie-breaking formula sent Kelowna on to a semifinal, while the other two met on May 28, with the Remparts getting two goals from Jerome Verrier and beating Rimouski, 5-2.
On May 29, the Rockets, who had lost to Quebec on May 22, dismantled the Remparts, 9-3, to move into the final.
On May 31, Tomas Soustal gave the Rockets a 1-0 lead at 15:08 of the first period. Cirelli, who had scored 13 times in the regular season and twice in the playoffs, tied it with his first goal of the tournament at 13:50 of the second period. Then, at 1:28 of overtime, Cirelli banged home a rebound that gave the Generals a 2-1 victory and the championship.
“Words can’t describe what I’m feeing now,” Cirelli said. “Coming from midget hockey last year and making this team, then doing this . . . we worked so hard all season and to win it is unbelievable.”
Cirelli’s goal also gave Smith his third Memorial Cup as a coach; he was an assistant with the Windsor Spitfires when they went back-to-back in 2009 and 2010. As well, Oshawa assistant coach Eric Wellwood was a player on those Windsor teams, so he also now had three titles.
The 2015 Memorial Cup final was the last meaningful game played at Quebec City’s Colisee Pepsi. The Remparts moved into the Videotron Centre for the 2015-16 season.
2015 Oshawa Generals:
Ken Appleby, Jeremy Brodeur, Josh Brown, Chris Carlisle, Cole Cassels, Anthony Cirelli, Michael Dal Colle, Stephen Desrocher, Sam Harding, Sonny Hertzberg, Kenny Huether, Bradley Latour, Tobias Lindberg, Joe Manchurek, Dakota Mermis, Michael McCarron, Matt Mistele, Brent Pedersen, Daniel Robertson, Will Petschenig, Hunter Smith, Stephen Templeton, Michael Turner, Mitchell Vande Sompel, Aidan Wallace, Roger Hunt (Manager), D.J. Smith (Coach).
2014 – Edmonton Oil Kings
At one time, the Edmonton Oil Kings were among the most recognizable names in Canadian hockey circles.
But when the 2014 Memorial Cup opened in London’s Budweiser Gardens, the Oil Kings hadn’t won a national title since 1966. That ended a run of seven straight appearances in the Memorial Cup final, although the only other time they won was 1963.
But a decade into a new millennium, the Oil Kings, now owned by the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers and under head coach Derek Laxdal, started making noises again. They won the WHL title in 2012, and played in the Memorial Cup in Shawinigan, losing a tiebreaker to the eventual-champion Cataractes.
Two years later, they were back again, along with Dale Hunter’s host Knights, the Guelph Storm, coached by Scott Walker, and Mario Durocher’s Val-d’Or Foreurs.
The Oil Kings won it all in 2014, too, and they certainly took the long road, going into double overtime in one game and later playing the longest game in Memorial Cup history.
The tournament opened on May 16 with the Foreurs beating the Knights, 1-0, on 52 saves from Antoine Bibeau and Anthony Mantha’s first-period goal.
The next day, the Storm dumped the Oil Kings, 5-2, with Kerby Rychel and Tyler Bertuzzi each scoring twice. Edmonton then got two goals from each of Edgars Kulda and Luke Bertolucci in evening its record with a 5-2 victory over London.
On May 19, Guelph doubled Val-d’Or, 6-3, and the Foreurs then beat Edmonton, 4-3, on Anthony Richard’s goal at 1:15 of double OT.
When Guelph defeated London, 7-2, on May 21, the host team was 0-3 and done, with the Storm, at 3-0, moving into the final.
That left Edmonton and Val-d’Or to play a semifinal that went into the third OT period before Curtis Lazar won it. At 102:42, it was the longest game in Memorial Cup history.
The two OT games meant that Edmonton had played two full games more than the Storm when the two met in the May 25 final. But that didn’t bother Edmonton, which got two goals and three assists from Henrik Samuelsson in a 6-3 victory.
Edmonton’s roster included eight players who had played in 2012, when Latvian forward Kristians Pelss was a popular teammate. Pelss died in a diving accident in his native Latvia in June 2013, but was very much with the Oil Kings in London.
“He was a good buddy of mine,” Samuelsson, son of former NHLer Ulf Samuelsson, said. “I know he was watching over us today and he definitely had a part of it.”
Kulda, another Latvian, was the tournament MVP, finishing with four goals and three assists, including a goal and two assists in the final.
“We’ve got an unbelievable culture built here,” Edmonton forward Mitch Moroz said. “It doesn’t hurt when you have a guardian angel upstairs as well.”
Interestingly, Guelph’s only loss was in final.
2014 Edmonton Oil Kings:
Lane Bauer, Brandon Baddock, Cole Benson, Luke Bertolucci, Ben Carroll, Cody Corbett, Mads Eller, Aaron Irving, Tristan Jarry, Riley Kieser, Edgars Kulda, Curtis Lazar, Dysin Mayo, Jesse Mills, Mitchell Moroz, Blake Orban, Reid Petryk, Brett Pollock, Brandon Ralph, Griffin Reinhart, Tyler Robertson, Henrik Samuelsson, Tyler Santos, Ashton Sautner, Mitchell Walter, Randy Hansch (Manager), Derek Laxdal (Coach).
NHL: Jarry has two Stanley Cup rings as a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins. While he didn’t dress in the final in either 2016 or 2017 and therefore his name does not appear on the cup, he did dress for two playoff games in 2016 and 11 in 2017.
2013 – Halifax Mooseheads
Nathan MacKinnon and Jonathan Drouin were too much for the rest of the field at the 2013 Memorial Cup in Saskatoon’s Credit Union Centre.
The two combined for eight goals and 14 assists in four games in leading the QMJHL-championship Halifax Mooseheads to the franchise’s first national championship.
“They like playing in big games,” Mooseheads head coach Dominique Ducharme told reporters after his club had beaten the Portland Winterhawks, 6-4, in the championship final. “Those guys like facing big teams and big moments and big challenges. They just showed that they’re big-time players.”
There were 11,488 fans at the final and they watched as MacKinnon struck for three goals and added two assists, while Drouin drew assists on each of Halifax’s first five goals.
That put the cap on quite a season for the Mooseheads. They had enjoyed a 120-point regular season (58-6-4), then went on a 16-1 run through the playoffs.
That got them to Saskatoon, along with the host Blades, the Winterhawks and the London Knights.
The tournament opened on May 17 with the Knights beating the Blades, 3-2, on Nikita Zadorov’s power-play goal at 5:45 of the third period.
The next day, the Mooseheads, behind three goals from MacKinnon, dumped the Winterhawks, 7-4.
On May 19, the Blades, with Matej Stransky scoring twice, bounced the Mooseheads, 5-2.
When Portland beat London, 6-3, on May 20 all four teams were 1-1, only the second time that had happened. (The first time was in 2012 in Shawinigan.)
In the last two round-robin games, Halifax got three goals from Martin Frk in whipping London, 9-2, and Portland doubled Saskatoon, 4-2.
When it all shook out, Halifax had a berth in the final and Portland was into the semifinal. That left London and Saskatoon in a May 23 tiebreaker, which the Knights won, 6-1, behind 32 saves from Jake Paterson.
On May 24, the Winterhawks scored a 2-1 victory over the Knights, winning on Ty Rattie’s fifth goal of the tournament, at 8:32 of the third period, and 34 stops from Mac Carruth.
In the final, the Mooseheads led 3-0 in the first period, before the Winterhawks scored twice. MacKinnon and Konrad Abeltshauser, with his second goal, restored Halifax’s three-goal lead in the third period, only to have Portland cut the deficit to one. MacKinnon iced it with his third goal of the game, into an empty net, at 19:37. Rattie finished with a goal and three assists for Portland.
Ducharme saw a lot of magic from MacKinnon and Drouin during the season. So where did this game rank?
“We’ll rank it No. 1, right?” Ducharme said. “Because of the outcome, because of the meaning of the game — you can’t have it bigger than that. They were great tonight.”
The Mooseheads were the third straight QMJHL team to win the Memorial Cup.
2013 Halifax Mooseheads:
Konrad Abeltshauser, Liam Alcalde, Brent Andrews, Darcy Ashley, Brennan Bailey, Dominic Beauchemin, Matthew Boudreau, Luca Ciampini, Chris Clarke, Jonathan Drouin, Brendan Duke, Ryan Falkenham, Stefan Fournier, Martin Frk, Zach Fucale, Jordan Kennedy, Austyn Hardie, Jonathan Lacroix-Courville, Trey Lewis, Max Lindsay, Brian Lovell, Stephen MacAulay, Nathan MacKinnon, Matt Murphy, Andrew Ryan, Mackenzie Weegar, Cam Russell (Manager), Dominique Ducharme (Coach).
NHL: MacKinnon won the Calder Memorial Trophy as NHL Rookie of the Year following the 2013-14 season, becoming the youngest player to ever win the award and was named to the NHL All-Rookie Team. He was named to the NHL All-Star Game in 2016 and 2017.
2012 – Shawinigan Cataractes
On the morning of May 24, 2012, the Shawinigan Cataractes found themselves in a bit of a spot.
The host team for the 2012 Memorial Cup tournament was going to have to defeat three league champions over the next four days if it was to win the first championship in franchise history.
Impossible? Well . . . no team had ever performed such a feat, and this had been a four-team affair since 1983.
The Cataractes, coached by Eric Veilleux, were up against Gerard Gallant’s Saint John Sea Dogs, who also were the defending champions; Mark Hunter’s London Knights; and Derek Laxdal’s Edmonton Oil Kings.
The tournament opened at the Centre Bionest on May 18, with Edmonton beating Shawinigan, 4-3.
Over the next three days, London beat Saint John, 5-3; Shawinigan dumped London; 6-2; and Saint John got past Edmonton, 5-2. That left all four teams at 1-1.
In the last two round-robin games, London defeated Edmonton, 4-1, and Saint John dumped Shawinigan, also 4-1. It all meant that London was into the final, Saint John was into the semifinal, and the other two would meet in a tiebreaker.
Of course, it also meant that Shawinigan had that tough road ahead of itself.
The Cataractes began on May 24 with a 6-1 victory over Edmonton in the tiebreaker, thanks to two first-period goals and four more in the second.
The next night, Shawinigan took out Saint John, 7-4, as Yannick Veilleux broke a 4-4 tie at 13:14 of the third period. The winners got two goals and an assist from Michael Chaput, a goal and two helpers from Brandon Gormley, and three assists from Anton Zlobin.
With two league champions down, Shawinigan faced London in the final on May 27, and beat the Knights, 2-1 in overtime, as Zlobin scored both goals, the winner coming on a quick shot from the right circle at 17:51 of extra time.
“I just saw Zubie shoot and the light go on and I knew we won,” Chaput said. ”I was ecstatic.”
The winners also got a big game from goaltender Gabriel Girard, who stopped 34 shots.
“He played the best game of his life,” Chaput said of Girard. “Without him, we wouldn’t have won this championship.”
Chaput was named the MVP after leading the tournament in assists (7) and points (12).
Zlobin, a 19-year-old sophomore from Moscow, had scored 40 goals in the regular season. He added five goals and four assists in the tournament.
“I just shoot the puck with all I can,” Zlobin said. “After when I see red light, I’m so excited. It was an amazing night. The most important night in my life.”
This was the eighth time since 1983 that the final went to overtime, but the first time since 2001.
2012 Shawinigan Cataractes
Vincent Arseneau, Felix-Antoine Bergeron, Michael Bournival, Michael Chaput, Dillon Donnelly, Alex Dubeau, Morgan Ellis, Mathieu Gagnon, Frederick Gaudreau, Gabriel Girard, Brandon Gormley, Alexandre Grandmaison, Justin Hache, Kirill Kabanov, Dylan Labbe, Maximilien Le Sieur, Mitchell Maynard, Pierre-Olivier Morin, Jonathan Narbonne, Loik Poudrier, Jonathan Racine, Peter Sakaris, Yannick Veilleux, Patrick Volpe, Anton Zlobin, Martin Mondou (manager), Eric Veilleux (coach).
2011 – Saint John Sea Dogs
The Memorial Cup, first awarded in 1919, had yet to be won by a team from Atlantic Canada when the 2011 tournament began in Mississauga.
In fact, only one Atlantic team — the Moncton Wildcats — had reached the final. (Playing at home in 2006, they lost, 6-2, to the Quebec Remparts.)
The Saint John Sea Dogs, under head coach Gerard Gallant, ended the drought at the Hershey Centre on May 29, 2011, beating the host St. Michael’s Majors, 3-1.
“This means so much to Atlantic Canada,” Gallant, from Summerside, P.E.I., told Tim Wharnsby of CBC Sports. “It just shows you how much talent we have out there. We had 10 or 11 kids from Atlantic Canada on our team. That’s outstanding and it’s only going to help develop more kids.”
The Sea Dogs didn’t run away and hide in a tournament that also featured the Owen Sound Attack, of head coach Mark Reeds, and the Kris Knoblauch-coached Kootenay Ice. Seven of the tournament’s nine games were decided by one or two goals.
It began on May 20 with Saint John beating the hosts, 4-3, as Jacob DeSerres stopped 24 shots. DeSerres had started for Brandon in the final of the 2010 tournament, a game the Wheat Kings lost 9-1 to the Windsor Spitfires.
The next day, Jordan Binnington stopped 29 shots and Robby Mignardi scored twice to lead the Attack to a 5-0 victory over Kootenay.
St. Michael’s, owned by Eugene Melnyk and coached by Dave Cameron, beat the Ice, 2-1, on May 22, thanks to a Rob Flick goal at 11:51 of the third period.
Saint John went to 2-0 on May 23, as DeSerres made 47 saves and Jonathan Huberdeau scored at 17:35 of OT for a 3-2 victory over Owen Sound.
The Ice, needing a victory to avoid elimination, beat Saint John, 5-4, on Matt Fraser’s second goal, at 3:55 of overtime. Tomas Jurco scored twice for the Sea Dogs, the second one tying the game at 19:45 of the third period.
The round-robin concluded on May 25 with St. Michael’s beating Owen Sound, 3-1.
When it was sorted out, Saint John (2-1) was into the final, Mississauga (2-1) moved to the semifinal, and the other two, both 1-2, headed to a tiebreaker.
On May 26, Kootenay, getting two goals from each of Cody Eakin and Fraser, erased a 2-0 deficit as it beat the Attack, 7-3.
One day later, the Majors, with Devante Smith-Pelly scoring twice, got past the Ice, 3-1, and moved into the final against a Saint John team that enjoyed four days off between games.
On May 29, DeSerres came up with 34 saves to lead the Sea Dogs to that 3-1 victory.
“After last year I didn’t know if I would get another opportunity,” he told Wharnsby. “I’m glad I did.”
2011 Saint John Sea Dogs:
Steven Anthony, Nathan Beaulieu, Alexandre Beauregard, Gabriel Bourret, Jason Cameron, Mathieu Corbeil-Theriault, Steven Delisle, Jacob DeSerres, Simon Despres, Pierre Durepos, Kevin Gagne, Stanislav Galiev, Danick Gauthier, Eric Gelinas, Jonathan Huberdeau, Tomas Jurco, Aidan Kelly, Michael Kirkpatrick, Stephen MacAulay, Spencer MacDonald, Jordan Mock, Scott Oke, Devon Oliver-Dares, Zach Phillips, Jason Seed, Tyrone Sock, Ryan Tesink, Mike Thomas, Mike Kelly (manager), Gerard Gallant (coach).
NHL: Huberdeau was named the recipient of the Calder Memorial Trophy as Rookie of the Year following the 2012-13 season. He amasses 31 points during a lock0ut shortened 48 game season. After an 11 year playing career, Gallant has had an even more successful coaching career. Coaching stops have included Columbus, NY Islanders, Montreal Canadiens, Florida Panthers and now head coach of the expansion Vegas Golden Knights.
2010 – Windsor Spitfires
The 2010 Memorial Cup opened and closed the same way — with the OHL-champion Windsor Spitfires scoring a decisive victory over the host Brandon Wheat Kings.
The Spitfires, the defending champions who had won the 2009 title in Rimouski, got the 2010 event started with a 9-3 victory over Brandon on May 14.
On May 23, the outcome was the same as Windsor posted a 9-1 victory over Brandon in the championship game.
In between, the Spitfires, with Bob Boughner in his fourth season as head coach, didn’t do anything to dent their claim as the CHL’s top team. They were 3-0 in the round-robin, outscoring the opposition, 19-8. None of the other four teams, including the Mike Williamson-coached Calgary Hitmen and Danny Flynn’s Moncton Wildcats, scored as many goals or surrendered fewer.
However, the Spitfires didn’t win it all without surviving a real scare in the opening game’s early moments when forward Taylor Hall, the tournament MVP in 2009, went awkwardly into the end boards and looked to be seriously hurt.
“I thought he was done,” Windsor forward Adam Henrique said.
Hall was chasing a loose puck into the Brandon zone when he was bumped by Wheat Kings defenceman Travis Hamonic.
“It was a pretty scary thought there for a second,” said Hall, who emerged with a bloody nose and a cut to his forehead. “I went in pretty hard and my neck kind of snapped back. Fortunately, I was OK — I’m a pretty flexible kid, and I was able to come out of it OK.”
Hall bounced back to score two of Windsor’s five first-period goals, and later would again be named the tournament’s MVP after leading it in goals (5) and points (9).
In its other round-robin games, Windsor beat Calgary, 6-2, and Moncton, 4-3, in overtime.
On May 23, Hall had a goal and two assists, and Henrique had two goals and an assist, as Windsor whipped the Wheat Kings again, this time in the championship game.
“It’s just such an incredible feeling,” Hall said. “I’ll have this feeling for a long time. For those last 10 minutes, I just kind of reminisced about my whole junior career.”
The Spitfires were the eighth team to successfully defend their title, the first since the Kamloops Blazers in 1995. Having won the last four games in Rimouski, Windsor finished 2010 on an eight-game Memorial Cup winning streak.
It certainly wasn’t the finish that Kelly McCrimmon, the Wheat Kings’ owner, general manager and head coach, would have liked.
“We lost to a very good team,” McCrimmon said, “so give credit where credit is due . . . Windsor demonstrated throughout their four games that they were the best team in the tournament, by far.”
Still, McCrimmon had brought the tournament to the Wheat City and later was honoured by the city’s chamber of commerce, which presented him with the 2011 President’s Award as Business Person of the Year.
2010 Windsor Spitfires:
Marc Cantin, Mark Cundari, Craig Duininck, Ryan Ellis, Cam Fowler, Philipp Grubauer, Taylor Hall, Adam Henrique, Stephen Johnston, Zack Kassian, Derek Lanoue, Dale Mitchell, Greg Nemisz, Troy Passingham, Saverio Posa, Kenny Ryan, Justin Shugg, Scott Timmins, Adam Wallace, Eric Wellwood, James Woodcroft, Harry Young, Warren Rychel (general manager), Bob Boughner (coach)
NHL: Fowler was selected to the 2011 NHL All-Star Game as part of the rookie team. Hall has been selected for 3 NHL All-Star teams including the rookie team in 2011 and the full team in 2016 and 2018. Rychel won a Stanley Cup in 1996 with the Colorado Avalanche and played 8 NHL seasons with 5 different teams. Boughner played 630 NHL games across 12 seasons with 6 different teams. In 2017 he was named the Head Coach of the Florida Panthers.