The best game of the Memorial Cup was saved for last, thankfully. I doubt that the 2015 tournament will rank up on anyone’s best-ever list but the Oshawa Generals’ 2-1 overtime victory over the Kelowna Rockets should be high on the list of championship games.
When the two teams met in the first round, the score was also 2-1 for the Generals, a win the OHL champs pulled off in regulation. That game was a chess-match by comparison to the action-packed final.
I would do a list of winners and losers among draft-eligibles and prospects off the game but that would be grossly unfair at the end of the season and after such an entertaining tilt. And really, if a prospect gets as far as a Memorial Cup final, it would be hard to say that he’s hurt his stock. So I’ll just focus on winners.
Winner: Oshawa centre Anthony Cirelli. A draft eligible, Cirelli finished at No. 67 on the NHL Central Scouting Service’s rankings of North American skaters. He was trending in the right direction having being slotted at No. 88 at the mid-term. His numbers would suggest those are fair assessments: 13 goals and 23 assists in 68 games. And the measurements don’t build a great case for him, just under six feet but a reedy 160 pounds on Central’s scale.
But pretty clinical finish on two goals in the championship game might have scouts going back over their notes—the first last night was a great wrist shot, a goal scorer’s goal, and the OT winner was a cashing of a rebound, fighting through the wrap-up of Rockets blueliner Devante Stephens. Maybe Cirelli would have had more time to shine with another team this season. At least it will be a conversation starter when he gets to the combine.
Winner: Oshawa goaltender Ken Appleby. An interesting call for NHL teams this time round, the 20-year-old Appleby has managed to pass through drafts. Central ranked him 27th among netminders in North America in 2014 and listed him as a C prospect this season, basically an afterthought. He’s regarded as an honest worker with NHL size (6-foot-4-and-a-half and 209 pounds) but not super athletic. He had a couple of hiccups in the post-season against North Bay in the Eastern Conference final but in the Memorial Cup championship game he was sensational, turning aside 37 of 38 shots.
The Rockets could have easily stretched their first-period lead to two or three goals. I thought Appleby set the course of the OHL final when he kept the Erie Otters at bay with the score tied after the second intermission in Game 2—Connor McDavid and his crew had the Generals reeling but stole two or three goals off their sticks. He might have won an audition then and there but he’s bound to get one now.
Winner: Oshawa centre Cole Cassels. The play of former NHLer Andrew Cassels’ son has been the subject of a couple of missives in this space over the last few weeks. He didn’t have his best game in the final but his body of post-season work suggests that Vancouver landed a great pick when taking him in the third round a couple of years back. Again, USA Hockey didn’t think he could help at the world juniors? He was exactly the player the Americans needed.
Winner: Kelowna right winger Nick Merkley. The most significant draft-eligible in Quebec this week, Merkley had to help his stock. Scouts here said that they thought he will fall somewhere between No. 20 and the end of the first round. Maybe. Size does work against him. Still, more than a few of those who will be called in the top couple of dozen can be hard to find on the ice on occasion and that’s seemingly never the case with Merkley. "Pest" doesn’t quite do him justice. On the shift right after Tomas Soustal’s opening goal, Merkley went through traffic, carried the puck to the edge of the Oshawa net and forced Generals netminder Ken Appleby to do the splits, toe to the post, to make a five-star save.
Virtually every shift Merkley did something to get under the skin of one of the Generals, most often the biggest on the ice, either Hunter Smith or Michael McCarron. When he wasn’t jabbing and needling Generals, he was creating scoring chances. I don’t know why he dropped from No. 13 in the midterms to No. 23 in the final rankings issued last month but, again like Cirelli, his performance in Quebec should re-open some teams’ discussions at the combine.
Winner: The Edmonton Oilers. There’s a good shot that the one year when they didn’t win the lottery they still landed the kid who’ll turn out to be the best player. Leon Draisaitl had a couple of powerhouse performances in Quebec. It looked like he was going to dominate play in the first period but tapered as the game went on.
Winner: Kelowna defenceman Madison Bowey. I’ll admit that I wasn’t blown away with Bowey’s play in the world juniors, but he stepped up in the final. He projects to a third or more probably fourth D—not really a guy you’d pin on the point on the powerplay at the next level. Still, for Washington to grab him late in the second round two years ago ranks as a win. At the end of the night Bowey was inconsolable in defeat, face down on the ice, like he was going to try to tunnel his way out of the Colisee.