Sunday, May 26, 2013

The Memorial Cup Final Is Tonight

The Halifax Mooseheads look to become the second Maritime team to win the MasterCard Memorial Cup tonight.

The Mooseheads take on the Portland Winterhawks in the Memorial Cup Championship Game tonight at 8pm on Sportsnet. The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League champs defeated the Western Hockey League champs 7-4 earlier in the tournament.

The 2011 Saint John Sea Dogs are the only previous team from Atlantic Canada to win the historic trophy. Halifax will look to join the Sea Dogs in that exclusive club and also bring the Memorial Cup to the QMJHL for a third consecutive year.

There are a ton of comparisons between this year’s Mooseheads and the 2011 Sea Dogs. Like Saint John did two years, Halifax got the bye straight through to the final and has had several days to prepare for this game.

The biggest connection between the Dogs and Moose is Stephen MacAulay who was part of the 2011 Saint John squad. MacAulay, playing in the final game of his unreal junior career, will look to become the first player to ever appear in four President Cup finals, win three President Cups, and win two Memorial Cups.

So that’s that. Good luck, Mooseheads.

Some other stuff…
  • Former Sea Dogs captain Alex Grant had two goals, three shots, and a +1 rating as the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins defeated the Syracuse Crunch 4-2 in the opening game of the AHL’s Eastern Conference Final. Game 2 is tonight.
  • The Oklahoma City Barons evened up the AHL Western Conference Final at 1-1 with a 4-2 win over the Grand Rapids Griffins last night. Tomas Jurco had two shots for the Griffins.
  • Some more pictures from the Reading Royals’ Kelly Cup win last night can be found over at Sweetest Hockey on Earth.
  • In less than 24 hours, the PEI Rocket will no longer exist. Details about the team’s rebranding, new name of the team, image of the new logo, 2013-14 season ticket campaign, and the latest additions to the recently announced ownership group (upon final sale of the team) will be released tomorrow at a 10am press conference.
  • QMJHL winners at last night’s CHL Awards: Dominique Ducharme (Halifax Mooseheads) was named the Old Dutch Brian Kilrea Coach of the Year, Valentin Zykov (Baie-Comeau Drakkar) was named the BMO Rookie of the Year, and Jonathan Drouin (Halifax Mooseheads) was named the CCM Player of the Year.

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