Spokane Chiefs earn berth in the MasterCard Memorial Cup

By chlwebproduct May 8, 2008

The Spokane Chiefs locked up their berth in the 2008 MasterCard Memorial Cup when they skated to a 4-1 win over the Lethbridge Hurricanes on Wednesday. The Chiefs swept the Western Hockey League Championship Series and won the Ed Chynoweth Cup as WHL champions.
The Chiefs will face the Belleville Bulls of the Ontario Hockey League in the second game of the tournament on Saturday May 17. The host Kitchener Rangers will open the tournament on Friday against the winner of the QMJHL final between the Gatineau Olympiques and Rouyn-Noranda Huskies.
The Chiefs are the first U.S.-Based WHL team to win the WHL Championship in 10 years. The Portland Winter Hawks were the last American team to win the WHL Championship in 1998. 17-year-old rookie <A href=”Mitch’>http://whl.ca/en/stats/player.php?id=24520″>Mitch Wahl</A> opened the scoring for the Chiefs in the first period while <A href=”Ondrej’>http://whl.ca/en/stats/player.php?id=24634″>Ondrej Roman</A> each notched a goal and an assist in the third period to salt away the Game 4 victory. Johnson was named WHL playoff MVP after scoring three goals with a +2 rating over the four-game series sweep of the Hurricanes in the WHL Championship series, with two of his three goals being game-winners. The Spokane, WA, product, playing for his hometown team, scored a shorthanded goal which proved to be the insurance marker in the Chiefs’ series-opening 4-1 victory over the Hurricanes on Friday, May 2nd, in Spokane. He followed up with the overtime game-winning goal in a 2-1 Chiefs triumph in Game 3 of the series in Lethbridge on Tuesday, May 6th. Johnson capped off his tremendous WHL Championship series performance by netting the game-winner in the Chiefs 4-1 win in the Championship-clinching game on Wednesday in Lethbridge. Johnson has recorded five goals and eight points in 21 games for the Chiefs during the 2008 WHL playoffs. He tallied 12 goals and 35 points in 69 games during the regular season. <A href=”Dustin’>http://whl.ca/en/stats/player.php?id=24636″>Dustin Tokarski</A> made 17 saves to record his 16th victory of the 2008 playoffs. <A href=”