The Road to Shawinigan
By Aaron Bell
There are still 12 weeks to go before the 2012 MasterCard Memorial Cup opens in Shawinigan, Quebec in mid-May – and lots of hockey to go between now and then – but three teams in the CHL are already starting to stake their claim for a spot in the national championship tournament.
The London Knights (1), Saint John Sea Dogs (2) and Kamloops Blazers (3) hold down the top three spots in the BMO CHL Top-10 Rankings this week and are all in first place in their respective leagues.
It’s been seven years since the London Knights stole all of the headlines in the hockey world with their impressive season that included the CHL’s longest undefeated streak and concluded with their Memorial Cup win on home ice against Sidney Crosby and the Rimouski Oceanic in the championship game of the 2005 MasterCard Memorial Cup at the John Labatt Centre.
Since then, the Knights have boasted superstars like Patrick Kane, Sam Gagner, John Tavares and Michael Del Zotto, but haven’t had another chance at junior hockey’s top prize.
The Knights don’t have the same kind of star power that they’ve had in recent years but that hasn’t stopped them from putting together a CHL-best 42-13-0-1 record in 56 games this season.
The Knights have cruised through the season mostly on the strength of some lesser known scorers but also added some punch up front through recent trades for stars Austin Watson and Greg McKegg.
Meanwhile in the QMJHL, the Saint John Sea Dogs are looking to follow the Windsor Spitfires from a couple of seasons ago and try to win back-to-back Memorial Cup titles.
The Sea Dogs have a league-best 42-14-0-2 record through 58 games and are one point ahead of the Memorial Cup host Shawinigan Cataractes for first place in the QMJHL standings.
After scoring 11 goals last season, sophomore Danick Gauthier already has a 40-goal season under his belt and has been a big part of the Sea Dogs’ offensive success this season. Throw in veterans Zack Phillips – who is eighth in the QMJHL scoring race with 73 points – and Tomas Jurco, who is also among the league’s top 20 scorers with 64 points – and it’s easy to see why the Sea Dogs are a formidable opponent once again this season.
Mathieu Corbeil has also been impressive in net for Saint John, putting together a 32-9-0-0 record to go along with a 2.29 goals against average in 41 games this season.
In the WHL, the Blazers have a 41-14-1-3 record and following the long weekend were one point ahead of the Edmonton Oil Kings and Portland Winterhawks for first place.
The Moose Jaw Warriors and Tri-City Americans also have more than 80 points already, so the top of the league is pretty congested and the regular season title is very much up for grabs in the final four weeks of the season.
Brendan Ranford is the Blazer’s top scorer this season with 34 goals and 76 points in 56 games while Colin Smith has chipped in with 30 goals and 69 points in 59 games.