London and Rimouski kick off the MasterCard Memorial Cup

It was more than a year ago that London was selected as the host city for the 2005 MasterCard Memorial Cup and after months of planning and preparation, the puck drops on the Canadian Hockey League championship tonight with the host Knights playing the QMJHL champion Rimouski Oceanic.

The Knights, who are celebrating their 40th anniversary and will play their first game since winning their first OHL Championship last Saturday, are looking forward to getting the tournament underway.

“It took us 40 years to get here,” said Knights coach and co-owner Dale Hunter. “We’re going to have fun with it.”

Rimouski won their second QMJHL championship in the past five years. They went on to win the Memorial Cup in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 2000.

“There is only one big junior hockey party in Canada and it’s the Memorial Cup,” said Oceanic coach Doris Labonte. “All of the other games are good game, but the real championship is at the Memorial Cup.”

The opener is a dream matchup between two teams that had unprecedented winning streaks during the regular season. The Knights set a new CHL record with a 31-game undefeated streak to start the season. Rimouski put together a 35-game undefeated streak that stretched through the end of the regular season into the playoffs.

Both teams are led by CHL scoring stars – Sidney Crosby led the CHL in scoring with 66 goals and 168 points in 62 games and Corey Perry won the OHL scoring title with 47 goals and 130 points in 60 games. The pair were teammates on Canada’s gold medal-winning World Junior Championship team.

Hunter expects to see both teams come out looking for the win in the tournament opener.

“Both teams are going to come out and play hard,” Hunter said. “It’s going to come down to execution. It’s pretty simple.”