Rangers win the Memorial Cup
Quebec City – The Kitchener Rangers won the 2003 MasterCard Memorial Cup championship with a 6-4 win over the Hull Olympiques in the tournament finale on Sunday at the Pepsi Colisee.
Rookie Evan McGrath scored two goals, including the game-winner with 2:40 left in the second period, and Gregory Campbell and Andre Benoit had three points each in the win.
It’s the second time the Rangers have won the Memorial Cup – the first came in 1982 in Hull – and are the first OHL team to win since the Ottawa 67’s did it on home ice in 1999. The Rangers defeated the 67’s in five games in the OHL Championship Series.
Benoit opened the scoring 1:45 into the game when he deposited a cross-crease pass from McGrath into the net for a 1-0 lead. Campbell capitalized on a powerplay less than two minutes later, redirecting a Benoit wrister from the blueline past Hull goaltender Eric LaFrance.
McGrath gave the Rangers a three goal lead with his first of the tournament early in the second period. Benoit fired a low wrist shot towards the net that the rookie redirected between LaFrance’s pads.
Hull got on the board at 7:40 of the second period, with Mathieu Brunelle converting a two man-advantage to cut the lead to two. Nick Fugere and Doug O’Brien also scored powerplay goals for Hull.
George Halkidis was given credit for the Rangers fourth goal when Nathan O’Nabigon attempted to centre a pass to the blueliner from behind the net. The puck went off the skate of a defender and into the Hull goal.
McGrath buried the winner when he broke into the Hull zone on a two-one-one with Campbell. His centering pass was blocked by a defenceman and knocked back onto his stick. McGrath caught LaFrance going the wrong way and fired the puck into the near side of the net.
David Clarkson iced the game with his second of the tournament. He picked the puck up in the slot and wristed it past LaFrance’s catching glove.
“This is the way I wanted to go out,” said Rangers blueliner Steve Eminger, who returned from the Washington Capitals in January. “Our hats are off to Hull. They never stopped competing. To cap it off like this is unbelieveable.”
There were 14,366 at the final game and Quebec City established a new attendance record with 84,765 attending the eight game tournament.
– Aaron Bell
Rangers advance to Memorial Cup final (May 22)
Michael Richards scored two goals in the third period, including the game-winner on a powerplay, to lift the Kitchener Rangers to a 4-2 win over the Kelowna Rockets at the MasterCard Memorial Cup at the Pepsi Colisee in Quebec City on Wednesday.
David Clarkson and Petr Kanko also scored and Nathan O’Nabigon chipped in with a pair of assists for the Rangers, who finished the round robin segment of the tournament with a 3-0 record and earned a berth in the final on Sunday.
Kiel McLeod gave the Rockets an early lead 4:17 into the first period before Clarkson tied the game 50 seconds into the second period. Duncan Keith put the Rockets ahead once again with 14 seconds left in the third period.
O’Nabigon worked the puck out from behind the net and Richards slid it past Kelowna goaltender Kelly Guard to tie the game 3:41 into the final period.
Richards struck again with 8:43 left guiding a backhander through Guard’s legs from the slot moments after defenceman Steve Eminger picked off a clearing pass at the blue line.
Kanko added his tournament-high fourth goal with 3:46 left in the game. He picked the puck up at the blueline and cut across the front of the net, lifting a backhander over Guard and into the top corner. It was a carbon copy of the goal Kanko scored against Hull on Tuesday.
“I don’t have the answer of why we turned it around,” said Rangers coach and general manager Peter DeBoer, who watched his club twice come back from one-goal deficits in the game. “We ‘ve handled that type of adversity all season and responded.”
The Rangers have three days off to prepare for the tournament finale. Hull (1-1) and Quebec (0-2) close out the round robin on Thursday (7:00 p.m. on Rogers Sportsnet). If Quebec wins, there will be a tie-breaker game on Friday, followed by the semi-final on Saturday with the winner advancing to the final on Sunday.
It’s good to get the rest,” said goaltender Scott Dickie, who made 25 saves in the win. “It’s going to be good for the guys to take a couple of days off and enjoy the city a little more. It gives us more time to get prepared for the finals.”
– Aaron Bell
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