GENERALS MARCH TO VICTORY
Oshawa takes the Memorial Cup with a 2-1 win in OT over Kelowna in Quebec, as the city’s Pepsi Coliseum sees its last hockey game ever,
QUEBEC CITY— They did it for themselves, they did for each other and they did it for their city.
The Oshawa Generals, on the strength of an overtime goal by rookie forward Anthony Cirelli, beat the Kelowna Rockets 2-1 Sunday night to win the 97th edition of the Memorial Cup.
“This is the toughest trophy to win. I always thought about it in the back of my head about winning this trophy. My dream came true today,” said the 17-yearold Cirelli, who scored both Oshawa goals and was one of only two rookies in the Oshawa lineup.
“No words, no words,” said Generals star forward Michael Dal Colle, a New York Islanders prospect, after he took a turn carrying the Cup around the ice of the historic Pepsi Coliseum. “Came to Oshawa three years ago. Never thought I’d be in Quebec winning the MasterCard Memorial Cup. What a feeling.”
It was a decidedly pro-Generals crowd that took in the last game to be played at the Pepsi Coliseum. Gens fans came by the hundreds on Saturday, maybe the thousands, in time to see their team Sunday. They had taken over hotels and city streets.
And the team is ever so aware of the layoffs that are crippling the city’s economy, and happy to bring good news.
“It means everything,” said Dal Colle. “The city is going through some tough times right now. People are getting laid off of jobs at GM. This is awesome. So happy to win it for the city.”
The crowd chanted “Appleby, Appleby” through the post-game celebration, a nod to goalie Ken Appleby, who turned aside 37 of 38 shots in the final. They thought he should have gotten tournament MVP, not Leon Draisaitl, the Kelowna Rockets star who led the tournament in scoring with seven points.
“I said all along Appleby would steal us a game,” said Oshawa coach D.J. Smith. “That’s what he did tonight. There were some doubts, you have to give Kelowna a lot of credit. They took it to us a lot of the game. “Our goalie kept us in it.” Cirelli, a 17-year-old winger from Woodbridge, who played minor hockey in Mississauga, will go down as having scored the last winning goal at 66-year-old rink nicknamed the House that Jean Beliveau Built.
“It’s an unbelievable feeling,” said Cirelli when asked about the historic moment.
Cirelli, the 67th-ranked North American skater by NHL Central Scouting, scored on a rebound just 1:28 into overtime as Oshawa claimed the Memorial Cup for the fifth time in its history.
The Rockets were loaded with star power. They featured two members of Team Canada’s gold-medal winning junior team with captain Madison Bowey and Winnipeg prospect Josh Morrissey. They also had Draisaitl, who played half the season in the NHL, and one of the NHL’s top prospects in Nick Merkley.
The Generals took a different approach; their players didn’t win awards or join national teams. “We were a true team,” said Smith. “A lot of times the best player comes in but his heart’s not all in it,” said Smith on adding new talent.
So Oshawa, who had Dal Colle, Josh Brown and Cole Cassels as core leaders, pursued support players.
“We felt we had the star players here and anybody that was going to come in was going to fall under those guys,” said GM Roger Hunt.
Over December and January, the Gens made their moves.
First, they acquired forward Brent Pedersen from the Kitchener Rang- ers in exchange for a pair of secondround picks, a third-round pick and a couple of conditional picks. Pedersen was a fifth-round pick of the Carolina Hurricanes in 2013.
Then the Generals got six-foot-six forward Michael McCarron and overage defenceman Dakota Mermis in exchange for Cliff Pu, Josh Sterk and draft picks. McCarron was a first-round pick of the Montreal Canadiens in 2013.
Finally, the Gens acquired winger Matt Mistele (a Los Angeles Kings prospect) from Plymouth for centre Ryan Moore and five draft picks.
“We have an older group. They grew up together,” Hunt said.
And now they are champions.