RIMOUSKI, Que. – The Kelowna Rockets wore black for Sunday‘s Memorial Cup final. Black was also the colour of yesterday‘s crowd.
For most the game, the sellout crowd of 4,811 booed the WHL champions every time they touched the puck. The booing stemmed from last Tuesday, when the Rockets lost their final round-robin game of the tournament, 2-1 to Windsor.
In that contest, the Rockets tried pulling goaltender Mark Guggenberger for an extra attacker and a chance to tie the game. Windsor, however, bottled up Kelowna‘s offence, and the Rockets couldn‘t get past centre ice, which prevented Guggenberger from reaching Kelowna‘s bench.
Thinking the Rockets were intentionally not pulling their goalie, and thus throwing the game, the crowd began booing Kelowna, and the anti-Rocket sentiment carried through to Sunday‘s final.
“We got word this morning that they thought we did . . . but that‘s ridiculous,” said Rockets head coach Ryan Huska on hearing the catcalls. “But we enjoyed our time in Rimouski. The host committee did an unbelievable job with this tournament, and it‘s something our guys will remember forever.
“It was a special time for our crew, and we had a great 10 days in a beautiful city.”
“As soon as they started that, I turned to our trainer and we talked about it,” said Rockets goaltender Adam Brown. “They think that we threw that first game against Windsor. We‘d never throw a game, especially in the Memorial Cup. No one would do that.”
TOURNAMENT STARS: Kelowna left-winger Jamie Benn was named the Ed Chynoweth trophy winner for being the tournament‘s top scorer, having scored five goals and four assists for nine points.
Forward Taylor Hall was named the Stafford Smythe winner as tournament MVP, while Yannick Riendeau was the George Parsons trophy winner for most sportsmanlike. Riendeau had two goals, eight points and two penalty minutes. His teammate, Marco Cousineau, was the Hap Emms winner for top goalie.
Making up the 2009 all-star team were, up front, Benn, Hall and Rimouski‘s Patrice Cormier, while Kelowna‘s Tyler Myers and Windsor‘s Ryan Ellis were the two defencemen. Cousineau was named the goaltender.
TWO FOR TWO: Twice. That‘s how many chances the Kelowna Rockets had to knock out the Windsor Spitfires. Twice. That‘s how many times Windsor refused to be beaten.
Facing early elimination, the Spitfires came up with a big 2-1 victory over Kelowna on Tuesday in round-robin play to keep their Cup dreams alive by forcing the tiebreaker game. In a battle of 1-2 teams, Windsor defeated Rimouski 6-4 on Thursday and advanced to Friday‘s semifinal, where the Spits edged Drummondville 3-2 in overtime and earned the other berth in Sunday‘s final.
Had Kelowna defeated Windsor on Tuesday, though, the Spits would have been the first team eliminated at 0-3. Instead, Windsor went on to win its next three games.
“The problem we had is we should have put them out of here earlier in the tournament when we had a chance to finish them off,” said Rockets president and general manager Bruce Hamilton. “We didn‘t, and that‘s what happens. Any team that‘s a champion from their own league, and you get a chance (to knock them out) . . . they did what they had to do.”
“When you let a team off the hook, you‘re giving them new life,” added Huska. “And, really, that‘s what it ends up coming down to a lot of times.
“We just didn‘t have enough tonight, and Windsor played a very good game. They deserve a lot of credit for the style they played, and for our inability to generate much offence.”
OUTTA HERE! Sunday‘s contest between Kelowna and Windsor was the first Memorial Cup championship game in Quebec or the Maritimes without a QMJHL team since 1988.
In the times a QMJHL franchise has played host to the Cup, there has always been local representation in the final.
Of course, with no Q team on the ice for Sunday‘s final, the normally jam-packed press rows were all but empty.
Of the 150 media members attending the 10-day event, 110 were from Quebec. For Sunday‘s game, there were approximately 25 journalists in attendance, with most being English-based.
WINDSOR RUN: For the Spitfires, the 2009 Memorial Cup could be the first of three consecutive national appearances.
Like every other junior-hockey franchise, the team will take a roster hit next season, with the Spitfires saying goodbye to three over-age players in goalie Andrew Engelage and defencemen Rob Kwiet and Ben Shutron.
Windsor may also lose a player or two to the minors, but, for the most part, the core, led by defenceman Ryan Ellis and winger Taylor Hall will be intact for 2009-10.
And for 2010-11, the Spitfires are thinking of playing host to the Memorial Cup. On Dec. 11, 2008, the city of Windsor opened the doors to its new 6,500-seat arena, the Windsor Family Credit Union Centre. The building cost approximately $71 million.
“We‘re getting a lot of new guys, but they‘re high-class guys,” said Ellis. “Hopefully a bunch of our older guys can stay as well. I think our team is going to be very similar next season, and I hope we have a good one, too.” Top of Page
