League finals set; Memorial Cup host out early again

OHL

Winning the Memorial Cup as the host team? That's hard. Winning your league as the Memorial Cup host team? That's proven to be even harder.

The Saginaw Spirit, the host of this year's Memorial Cup tournament, were eliminated from the Ontario Hockey League playoffs in the third round by the London Knights. The Spirit's last game was on May 5 and they won't play again until May 24 when they host the Western Hockey League champions.

Remarkably, Saginaw's elimination means no Memorial Cup host team has won their respective league since the 2008 Kitchener Rangers. No host team has won both the Memorial Cup and their respective league since the 2005 London Knights, considered one of the greatest junior teams of all-time.

Here is how each Memorial Cup host has done in their league playoffs since the last host champion (Kitchener) in 2008.... pic.twitter.com/W0Xx0JglIM

— Steve McLean (@SteveMcLean888) May 5, 2024

Since 2008, three host teams have managed to lift the Memorial Cup on home ice: the 2012 Shawinigan Cataractes, the 2017 Windsor Spitfires and the 2022 Saint John Sea Dogs (the Sea Dogs were, oddly, involved in all three of those tournaments).

It's fair to say that this is officially a trend – and can the Rimouski Oceanic stop it by winning the Gilles Courteau Trophy next year?

For the 14th straight CHL season the Memorial Cup host will not win their league title. Last time the host did win their league was Kitchener in 2008.
The longest stretch before this one was 7 seasons on two different occasions, 1988-1994 & 1998-2004.

— Steve McLean (@SteveMcLean888) May 5, 2024

With Saginaw out in the third round, all three league championships will have a berth in the Memorial Cup on the line.

Final fours set across CHL

Saskatoon Blades Facebook

The Saskatoon Blades completed a rare reverse sweep on Tuesday.

After defeating Connor Bedard's Regina Pats in seven games in the first round, the Blades lost the first three games of their second round series against the Red Deer Rebels. The Blades then rattled off four straight wins against the Eastern Conference's No. 2 seed to advance to the Western Hockey League's final four for the first time since 1994.

REVERSE SWEEP BABY!!!! pic.twitter.com/qfQJ7xEzNi

— Saskatoon Blades (@BladesHockey) April 26, 2023

Saskatoon becomes just the third team in WHL history to win a series after losing the first three games, joining the 1996 Spokane Chiefs and the 2013 Kelowna Rockets.

The Blades will face the loaded Winnipeg Ice in the WHL's Eastern Conference final.

The WHL's Western Conference final could be quite a show with the stacked Seattle Thunderbirds taking on the Memorial Cup host Kamloops Blazers. Logan Stankoven and Olen Zellweger of the Blazers sit in a tie for the WHL's playoff scoring lead with 21 points each.

Eastern Conference Final

Saskatoon (3) vs Winnipeg (1)

Western Conference Final

Kamloops (2) vs Seattle (1)

The big news out of the OHL is that the No. 1 seeds have fallen. The Windsor Spitfires were upset in the first round while the Ottawa 67's, who finished first in the overall league standings, lost in six games to the Peterborough Petes in the second round.

Pens Make History; Moose Off To Final

Alex Grant and the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins made some history on Wednesday night.

The Penguins advanced to the American Hockey League’s Eastern Conference Final with a 5-0 Game 7 victory over the Providence Bruins. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton lost the first three games of the second-round series but won the next four, becoming the third team in the 77-year history of the AHL to come back from a 3-0 series deficit and win.

The Pens will play the Syracuse Crunch in the in the Eastern Conference Final. In the West, Tomas Jurco and the Grand Rapids Griffins will take on the Oklahoma City Barons. The winners advance to the Calder Cup Final.

The Penguins finished fifth in the AHL’s Eastern Conference with a 42-30-2-2 record. The Bruins had the AHL’s best regular season record at 50-21-0-5.

Grant was a +1 with two penalty minutes in this game. Providence defenseman and former Sea Dog David MacDonald was a -1 with two penalty minutes.

Elsewhere on Wednesday night…

• The Halifax Mooseheads will play in the MasterCard Memorial Cup Final on Sunday, meaning that the national championship game will feature a QMJHL team for a third straight year. The Moose advanced straight to the final thanks to a 4-2 Portland Winterhawks win over the Saskatoon Blades. The Blades will now play the London Knights in tomorrow’s tie-breaker with the winner moving on to play in Friday’s semi-final against the Winterhawks.
• Also, via Buzzing The Net, Wednesday’s game featured this hit.

Halifax, Summerside Both Lose

The 2013 Memorial Cup tournament just got a whole lot more interesting.

After having a decent game against the London Knights on Friday night, the host Saskatoon Blades defeated the No. 1 ranked team in the Canadian Hockey League, the Halifax Mooseheads, by score of 5-2 on Sunday night.

The Blades were swept in the first-round of the Western Hockey League playoffs and the franchise had basically forgotten how to win a playoff game until tonight.

Going into this game, Saskatoon was riding a 13-game postseason losing streak.
— Damien Cox (@DamoSpin) May 20, 2013

Pretty much everyone had written off the Blades heading into the tournament. But after tonight’s display, this tournament just got a whole lot more fun.

Thanks to two quick goals in the third period, Saskatoon led 4-0 before the Mooseheads could finally get things going. Stephen MacAulay and Nathan MacKinnon quickly scored, making it a 4-2 contest. But despite some good pressure being applied by Halifax in the final minutes of the game, former Lewiston Maineiacs goaltender Andrey Makarov protected the lead. The Blades added an empty net goal with two seconds left which was a apparently a signal for everyone to throw their clappers and a single chair onto the ice (pictured above).

Halifax just could not get things rolling like they did on Saturday against Portland. It’ll be interesting to see how a team that has not faced much adversity all year deals with this kind of loss at the Memorial Cup.

Tomorrow, the Portland Winterhawks take on the London Knights. It Portland wins, every team at the tournament would be 1-1.

Elsewhere on Sunday…

• Unfortunately, the Summerside Western Capitals fell short in the RBC Cup final as they lost 3-1 to the Brooks Bandits on Sunday afternoon. None of the former Sea Dogs who play for the Capitals recorded a point in the game. A tournament record crowd 4,211 watched the game at Credit Union Place in Summerside.

Mooseheads Win Opener; Summerside Advances To RBC Cup Final

In a game that displayed the awesomeness of junior hockey, the Halifax Mooseheads won their first match of the 2013 Memorial Cup on Saturday night, defeating the Portland Winterhawks 7-4.

Nathan MacKinnon went into beast mode, recording a hat trick and adding an assist with a +4 rating. Jonathan Drouin, Luca Ciampini, Martin Frk, and former Sea Dog Stephen MacAulay also scored. Zach Fucale made 37 saves in the victory.

Troy Rutkowski had two goals for Portland while singles came from Seth Jones and Ty Rattie. Goaltender Mac Carruth was not good in this one, allowing seven goals on 35 shots.

This was a great game with plenty of momentum swings. It looked like the Winterhawks might go on to win the game in the second period as they led 3-1 early. But entering the third, it was Halifax in front by score of 6-3 thanks to a five-goal middle frame.

All eyes were on Jones, MacKinnon, and Drouin in this game. Jones wasn’t bad and Drouin was Drouin, but MacKinnon really stepped things up.

Also, via Deadspin, this happened tonight.

Halifax, 1-0, take on host Saskatoon, 0-1, on Sunday night.

Elsewhere on Saturday night…

• The Summerside Western Capitals will play in the RBC Cup final. The Caps advanced to the national championship game with a 3-2 overtime win over the Surrey Eagles. Former Sea Dog Danny Chiasson had a goal for Summerside. The Capitals will play the Brooks Bandits on Sunday night at 7pm in PEI.
• Alex Grant and the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins defeated the Providence Bruins 4-0. Grant had one shot and 12 penalty minutes. Former Sea Dogs captain David MacDonald had three shots and a fight for Providence. The Bruins now lead that AHL second-round playoff series 3-2.
• Tomas Jurco had an assist and three shots in the Grand Rapids Griffins’ 4-1 loss to the Toronto Marlies. The Griffins lead that series 3-2.
• An awful season of SNL comes to an end.

Memorial Cup Begins Friday

The four teams that will play in the 2013 Memorial Cup are set.

The London Knights were the final team to book their ticket. Last night, Bo Horvat scored with 0.1 seconds remaining in regulation to give the Knights a 3-2 victory over the Barrie Colts in Game 7 and their second straight Ontario Hockey League Championship.

London is the only team returning from last year’s tournament that also featured Saint John, Shawinigan, and Edmonton. The Oil Kings made it to the Western Hockey League final but could not repeat.

The Knights are joined by the host Saskatoon Blades, WHL Champion Portland Winterhawks, and Quebec Major Junior Hockey League Champion Halifax Mooseheads.

The tournament begins on Friday with the Blades taking on the Knights. The Mooseheads play their first game on Saturday as Nathan MacKinnon and Jonathan Drouin take on Seth Jones and the Winterhawks.

As always, every game of the tournament will be broadcast on Sportsnet.

It was also announced today that London will host the 2014 Memorial Cup, meaning the Knights will play in the tournament for three straight years. London hosted previously in 2005.