COLTS, KNIGHTS HEAD TO GAME 7
The Ontario Hockey League championship series has been nothing short of dramatic.
The Barrie Colts took a commanding 3-1 series lead on Wednesday when they scored five third-period goals, including four from Mark Scheifele, to mount a remarkable comeback. After losing Game 5 in London on Friday, the Colts once again rose from the ashes in the third period on Sunday, scoring four third period goals to send the game to overtime.
Their comeback bid fell short after Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Ryan Rupert scored the winner early into overtime.
Now the OHL final is heading to the pinnacle of sport: Game 7. The winner on Monday is crowned champion and will head to Saskatoon, Sask. to participate in the MasterCard Memorial Cup.
The Colts will do so without Anthony Camara, who was suspended for the balance of the playoffs after his center ice hit on Seth Griffith late in Game 5.
Following the Colts’ heroic Game 4 comeback, Knights head coach Dale Hunter called out the opposition for what he perceived as diving.
His tirade sounded familiar.
The Colts have lost momentum in this series, and may have lost their best player. Scheifele, who was on the wrong end of a Josh Anderson check late in Game 6, is still labouring.
EVIL EMPIRE RISES
They’ve been dubbed the “cheaterhawks” and the “evil empire” but now the Portland Winterhawks can add another label: Western Hockey League champions.
The Winterhawks finally got over the hump this year, winning their first league championship since the 1997-98 season. Portland dominated in the decisive game, a 5-1 victory in Edmonton in Game 6 on Sunday, to avenge the last two years’ league finals losses to Edmonton and Kootenay.
Ty Rattie scored two shorthanded goals in less than three minutes to give Portland a 2-1 lead early in the first period of Game 6. He added another for good measure, giving him a WHL record 50 career playoff goals.
Rattie led the playoffs in scoring with 20 goals and 16 assists for 36 points in 21 games, which helped him earn playoff MVP honours.
No matter what is said about the sanctions that surrounded the team earlier this season, the Winterhawks’ program has come a long way.
In some ways, it’s a shame the Winterhawks weren’t able to claim victory in front of their passionate fans on home ice, who were willing to put just about anything off to see them win the title.
MOOSEHEADS WIN FIRST QMJHL TITLE
The Halifax Mooseheads’ only playoff blemish was a 3-1 loss in Baie-Comeau in Game 3 on Tuesday. The Mooseheads captured the franchise’s first President’s Cup championship with a 4-1 series win over the Drakkar, going a near perfect 16-1 in the playoffs.
The win must feel even sweeter after the enduring the hostile crowd in Baie-Comeau, Que., where Drakkar fans took creativity to new heights.
One fan, however, may have taken it too far.
Like Hunter in the OHL finals, Mooseheads GM Cam Russell had some choice words about the officiating.
The Mooseheads were the first Quebec Major Junior Hockey League team to plant roots in the Maritimes 19 years ago. They became the fourth straight Maritimes-based team to win the league following in the footsteps of the Saint John Sea Dogs (2011-2012) and Moncton Wildcats (2010).
BLADES PRACTICING AGAINST PROS
The MasterCard Memorial Cup host Saskatoon Blades are doing their best to shake off any rust after being swept in the first round of the playoffs by the Medicine Hat Tigers on March 27.
Ten players with pro or university experience joined the Blades on the ice to give them a different look during some power-play drills.
“It gives the Blades some competition instead of just playing against each other,” former Carolina Hurricane forward Ryan Bayda told the Saskatoon Star Phoenix. “When you do that you start to learn everyone’s tendencies and start cheating a little bit. We’re fresh faces and hopefully we gave them a good test.”
The Blades play their first game in 51 days on Friday against the winner of the Barrie-London series.
MATTEAU FALLOUT
More light has been shed on one of the strangest stories of the season.
New Jersey Devils prospect Stefan Matteau Jr. was informally released by the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada in the QMJHL semifinals following some undisciplined play. His father, former New York Ranger Stephane, is an assistant coach with the Armada and opened up to Tom Gulitti.
According to the elder Matteau, the team’s decision to move on without his son was a result of a heated exchange between Matteau Jr. and head coach Jean-Francois Houle after his last game.
“They released him on emotion and emotion only,” Stephane Matteau said. “In the semifinals, he got speared and he retaliated – it’s a hockey play – and they decided to sit him out the whole third period of a 1-1 game. Emotionally, he let the coach know it was unfair the way he was treated for that moment and they went at it verbally and they kicked him off (the team) five minutes after the game.”
TROCHECK WINS RED TILSON TROPHY
Plymouth Whalers forward Vincent Trocheck was the runaway winner of the OHL’s Red Tilson Trophy, awarded annually to the league’s most outstanding player as voted by OHL accredited media.
Trocheck received 298 points while receiving 64 per cent of first-place votes. Belleville Bulls goaltender Malcolm Subban was second with 78 points, while Sarnia overager Charles Sarault finished third with 75 points.
Trocheck became the second-straight American to capture the award, following former London Knights goaltender Michael Houser.
It was a successful final junior season for Trocheck, a Florida Panthers prospect, who also won a gold medal with the U.S. world junior team.
SPITFIRES SHUFFLE OWNERSHIP GROUP
The Windsor Spitfires are still waiting to hear if their bid to host the 2014 MasterCard Memorial Cup was accepted, but made headlines with a restructuring of the team’s ownership.
Peter Dobrich sold his shares on Thursday to the Cypher Systems Group, consisting of John Savage, Brian Schwab, and Stephen Savage, who also own the Junior B LaSalle Vipers and junior C Belle River Canadiens.
The new trio of owners will focus on the business side, while leaving co-owners Bob Boughner (head coach) and Warren Rychel (GM) to run the hockey operations. Boughner remains the majority owner.
CONACHER RESIGNS IN REGINA
Two years after accepting the head coaching job in Regina, former NHLer Pat Conacher resigned with a year remaining on his contract.
The Pats failed to make the playoffs this season, following a seventh-place finish in the Eastern Conference standings a year ago. Under Conacher, the Pats went a combined 62-65-10-7. Conacher insisted he didn’t contact, nor had he been contacted, by another team and was merely being “true to himself.”
“You always have to take a step back, take all the emotion out of it,” he told the Regina Leader Post. “It’s too easy to make a (knee-jerk) decision. You have to talk to people you trust and that’s what I did. I came home and reflected on it. People who know me, I’ve never been a guy who ever quit on anybody or anything.”
Assistant coach Malcolm Cameron was promoted to head coach.