The Memorial Cup is in full swing, with the final game set to take place in about a week. In the meantime, four teams will compete through a round robin, where each team will face the other three teams to create a ranking system or standings.
The Medicine Hat Tigers represent the WHL, the London Knights represent the OHL, the Moncton Wildcats represent the QMJHL, and the Rimouski Oceanic are the host team. In the tournament, several different combinations can unfold; the best case for any team is a 3-0 record, which can only be achieved by one team. It is also possible for a team to be 0-3, which would immediately eliminate them from the tournament. Should a team go 3-0 and another 0-3, only the semifinal will be needed for the winner of that matchup to go to the final versus the 3-0 team.
A tiebreaker may be needed if no team loses out. In that case, the bottom two teams would square off, with the winner advancing to the semifinals, and the winner of that advancing to the finals. Hopefully, we are all now on the same page.
The tournament isn’t easy, as several games are played over the nine nights of the tournament.
Here’s what we have seen so far.
The Medicine Hat Tigers started with a 5-4 win over host Rimouski Oceanic. The Tigers fought very hard after being down 3-2 in the third. Bryce Pickford scored to tie the game, only to see Oceanic regain the lead. Two goals later in the third, one just a couple of minutes left in regulation, saw the Tigers hold on.
The next night was the battle many would think would be the Memorial Cup finals. The London Knights vs. Moncton Wildcats game was as wild as one could expect. The game saw both teams battle until the final buzzer in regulation. The two teams were tied at 2 and headed to overtime. Moncton took a timeout in overtime to rest some tired bodies. Easton Cowan ended the game with a floating pass to San O’Reilly, who took an outstretched Mathis Rosseau to score and end at 3-2 in overtime.
London would not rest as they played host to the Rimouski Oceanic the following night. The Oceanic is already one game down. Needed to get a win to have any chance of appearing in the tiebreaker. The first period was scoreless, as both teams had chances, many of which were broken up by the respective defensemen on each team. Rimouski finally ended the deadlock with a goalmouth scramble past Austin Elliot in the Knights’ net. A wrister from the faceoff dot tied it up The Knights took the lead several minutes later, but Rimouski wouldn’t falter.
With just under two minutes left, Rimouski pulled their netminder, only to lose the puck in the Knights’ zone, resulting in a free goal by Eason Cowan, securing the 3-1 Knight win.
The fourth game featured the Medicine Hat Tigers and Moncton Wildcats competing against each other. Medicine Hat looked to keep its perfect record, and Moncton looked to keep in the hunt for the tiebreaker. Medicine Hat took control of the game with a pair of goals by Ryder Ritchie, one early in the first period and midway through the second period, to take a 2-0 lead heading into the third period. Moncton wouldn’t back down as they scored just thirty seconds into the third period. Moncton struggled during the third period and, after pulling their goaltender, had numerous chances to even the score. With just seven seconds left in regulation, Gavin McKenna scored the empty net goal to seal it for the Tigers at 3-1.
The eyes now look to the next pair of games. London versus Medicine Hat for the right to the top spot, and Moncton versus Rimouski, which will determine whether Rimouski advances further in the tournament as the host team or watches from the sidelines. Medicine vs London will allow one team to win all three games in the tournament. The next two games will be critical.
Following those two games would be the tiebreaker, which would only be needed if Rimouski could win against the Knights, as the semifinal would take place the following night. Two nights later, the final will take place. For two teams, they will have played a 10 month season and some will then go onto amateur tryouts with AHL squads, there will be NHL signings and teams will start to put together squads for next year and saying goodbye to overage players, having to pare down squads to the limit of overage players and so on.
What is interesting is that one team may win all tournament games and still lose the championship.
In Winterhawks news, two signings of their draft players in Jake Gustafson and Alessandro Domenichelli. Domenichelli, born in 2009, is a European-born player. He is not considered under the European-born player rule, as his father played with Kamloops from 1992-96 and therefore does not count toward their import total. Gustafon is the son of San Jose Barracuda AHL Ian. He is a 2008-born player and could join the squad as a regular player.
The Hawks also traded rights to 2008-born player Landon Amrhein for 2007-born Sam Speher. Speher is the older brother of Finn Speher, who they signed as a prospect this year.
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