Bulldogs OHL champions!
Hamilton celebrates first major junior hockey title in 42 years and it’s not over — next stop Memorial Cup
The official storyline was written long before the Ontario Hockey League championship ever got started. Whichever team ended up facing the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds in the final — the Hamilton Bulldogs, as it turns out — was going to be a ceremonial offering to the god of inevitability.
The first-place-by-a-mile Greyhounds were just too good, too deep, too unbeatable and too overwhelming to handle. The J. Ross Robertson Cup and ensuing berth in the Memorial Cup were basically their birth rite. Upsets sure are fun, aren’t they? The Bulldogs turned that preordained narrative on its head in front of a joyous crowd of 8,663 yellow-towelwaving, wave-doing, “We-want-the Cup” chanting, ref-jeering fans Sunday afternoon, beating the Soo 5-4 in an instant classic and in the process, winning their first OHL title 4-2 in games. It gives this city its first major junior hockey title in 42 years and allows the local side a chance to compete for the Memorial Cup, starting this Friday against host Regina.
“We were down and then we got back up and the crowd was going and we were going,” an excited Mackenzie Entwistle said amid the celebrations, rather succinctly recapping the game.
“I’m just so happy right now. It’s crazy.”
It’s a remarkable story he and his mates are writing this spring.
Just three years ago, this team arrived in Hamilton as little more than a collection of spare parts. Its first year in town it missed the playoffs, which is hard to do in the OHL where 16 of 20 teams make it. Last year it got in, but was eliminated in the first round.
Behind the scenes, however, Hamilton native Steve Staios — who’d left his job as Toronto Maple Leafs’ player development adviser to return home and run the operation — was making a series of smart draft picks, clever hires and savvy trades. Suddenly he had a beast of a team. One that was so good that the underdog tag seemed misguided.
“This wasn’t Miracle on Ice,” head coach John Gruden says. “The better team won.”
It really did.
In a wonderful championship series, the Bulldogs were clearly — and surprisingly to many — every bit as good as the Greyhounds. Often better. This was no fluke. Anyone who would suggest that wasn’t watching. Or can’t get past their allegiance to their side. This was one terrific team beating another terrific team.
There were so many important moments in this deciding game. There was Ancaster native Nick Caamano scoring the most-difficult empty-net goal you’ll ever see. One that turned out to be the winner. There was defenceman Riley Stillman playing maybe his finest game as a Bulldog. There was Hamilton native Isaac Nurse doing what he’s done all year as an underrated checker.
The most important one of all may go down as nothing more than a footnote in the big picture. Yet without it, Hamilton may be in the Soo today nervously preparing
for Game 7 rather than enjoying their victory.
With Sault Ste. Marie leading 2-0 and having their way with a Bulldogs’ side that had been uncharacteristically docile through the first half of the game, Boris Katchouk — just the leading goal scorer in the playoffs who’d already added to his total earlier in the game, as in the very last guy you’d want in that spot if you were cheering for the black and yellow — was sprung loose on a breakaway.
“I’m sitting on the bench praying,” Entwistle says. “I’m going, ‘Please Fulchy, please make this save.’”
As Kachouk went wide, Hamilton goalie Kaden Fulcher did the splits and got his toe on the puck. A hard-backchecking Jack Hanley collected the rebound and fired a long pass to Brandon Saigeon, who suddenly found himself on a breakaway of his own. The Grimsby native, who grew
up playing minor hockey here in town for the Hamilton Jr. Bulldogs, didn’t miss his chance.
In less time than it’ll take to read this sentence, everything changed. The inspired Bulldogs woke up and took over the game. Instead of a 3-0 deficit, the version of the team that’s rolled through the playoffs emerged.
“Oh yeah, the fans got behind the team. It seemed to change the momentum,” Saigeon said.”
After it was over, Gruden said to be the best you have to beat the best. Numerically and statistically, and by a variety of other measurables, the Greyhounds probably could lay claim to that title. Heck, your meals this weekend outnumbered the home games they lost this regular season and playoffs.
Yet a championship banner only hangs from the rafters of the arena whose team proved it was the best when it counted. On opening night next October, that
drapery won’t be unfurled in the Soo, but at FirstOntario Centre.
Yeah, it would’ve been incredible if this moment could’ve been followed by the Memorial Cup here in Hamilton. The team bid for it, but was defeated by Regina. Which is where the Bulldogs will be heading later this week. Having it here in the wake of this would’ve been something.
It still is something. Three years after landing in town, this team is a champion.
“With all the doubters about Hamilton and junior hockey, isn’t it great?” team owner Michael Andlauer says. “We did it the hard way, beating the top-ranked team in the nation. Now we’ll bring the Memorial Cup — the Cup itself — back here.”