Familiar final foursome at Memorial Cup
QUEBEC — There are no strangers in this year’s Memorial Cup tournament.
The four teams that will begin the battle at the Pepsi Colisee Friday have been in major junior hockey’s championship tournament repeatedly, although its been 18 years since the Oshawa Generals’ last appearance. Each team has won it at least once and all are capable of winning again.
The Kelowna Rockets, led by scoring star Leon Draisaitl, plowed through the WHL playoffs with a 16-3 record, including a four-game sweep of the top-ranked Brandon Wheat Kings in the final.
The Rimouski Oceanic went 16-4 in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League post-season, but needed a goal by Michael Joly in the second overtime period to beat the Quebec Remparts in Game 7 of the final.
Oshawa, fresh off its 13th J. Ross Robertson Cup title as Ontario Hockey League champions after going 16-5 in the playoffs, used the best defence in all three leagues to send phenom Connor McDavid and the Erie Otters packing in only five games in their final.
And the host Remparts bring a team of speed and skill led by Tampa Bay Lightning prospect Adam Erne, who scored 21 goals in 22 playoff games.
The Remparts open the roundrobin portion of the 10-day tournament tonight against Kelowna, while Oshawa plays Rimouski on Saturday afternoon.
The event features six players who won gold for Canada at the 2015 world junior championship: goalie Zach Fucale and forward Anthony Duclair of the Remparts; defencemen Madison Bowey and Josh Morrissey of Kelowna; and defenceman Sam Morin and forward Frederik Gauthier of Rimouski.
The Rockets, whose only Memorial Cup win in four trips to the event was in 2004, will have been off 10 days when they face the Remparts. They used that time to practise and study video of their opponents.
The Remparts, looking to become the first host team to win since the Shawinigan Cataractes in 2012, won the Cup in 1971 (with Guy Lafleur) and 2006.
The Generals, whose alumni includes Bobby Orr, Eric Lindros and John Tavares, are seeking a fifth Memorial Cup, but a first since 1990, while the Oceanic won its Memorial Cup in 2000 with Brad Richards as its star.