Once upon a time, a three-goal lead in hockey gave a team enough breathing room to chalk up a win.
KITCHENER -- The first two games of the 2008 MasterCard Memorial Cup are proving to be the exception to the rule. After seeing the host Kitchener Rangers lose leads of 3-0 and 5-2 before beating the Gatineau Olympiques in overtime, no one would have predicted a similar result in the second game between the Spokane Chiefs and Belleville Bulls on Saturday.
It’s clear now the times have changed.
Two-goal leads have been talked about at length given the potential ramifications surrounding a comeback. With a two-goal lead, teams have been sometimes prone to sitting back and looking ahead at the next game.
It wasn’t uncommon to see leads of two goals erased, especially in the Canadian Hockey League, but to see two championship winning teams blow three-goal leads in consecutive nights is something new.
The most important aspect teams need to learn when leading by a wide-margin in this tournament is that no lead is safe. Each of the four teams in the 2008 Memorial Cup tournament has earned their spot as the Bulls proved by coming within a game of winning the OHL championship.
The Memorial Cup tournament is not only one of the hardest to win but also one of the most unpredictable. After going through a grueling regular season and playoffs, each team is then pitted in an unfamiliar situation where one game becomes paramount.
No one knows this better than Kitchener Rangers head coach and general manager Peter DeBoer who won the Memorial Cup in 2003. In Friday’s post-game press conference, he addressed the importance winning the first round robin game has towards the implications for the bye to the final.
"With the way the elimination works in this and the fact the statistics show the easier the road you take to the final, the more probability you have of winning by quite a big margin," he said. "It’s important to win your first (game) but also continue on to get the bye to the final."
Eight of the last 10 Memorial Cup champions, including the 2003 Rangers, used the bye to the final en route to capturing the championship. The Vancouver Giants took momentum from their 8-1 drubbing of the Plymouth Whalers in the semifinal in last year’s tournament into the championship game where they dominated the Medicine Hat Tigers, with the 3-1 score being the only close thing in that game.
It can be hard for teams to adjust to the implications of the Memorial Cup tournament. After competing in some long playoff rounds where each loss mattered, but wasn’t always catastrophic, some teams have had problems embracing the desperation.
"In a four of seven (game series), you can afford to go down 1-0 (because) you got a lot of hockey left to play," DeBoer said.
Although the end result didn’t work out for the Olympiques on Friday or the Bulls on Saturday, both teams exhibited the desperation to fight back into each of their games.
The problem is, however, when you’ve spent all your energy towards tying the game, it can be hard to get over the mountain and in the win column. Each team preached the importance of a better start while neither was satisfied with their overall play.
The results from the first two games set up an interesting next two. The Rangers and Chiefs will look to get a step closer to the coveted bye to the final in Sunday’s game while the Olympiques and Bulls will both be looking at getting back in the tournament with their first win.
Given how hard Gatineau and Belleville battled back in their games, they should be well-prepared for the challenge. Just don’t expect either team to feel comfortable with a three-goal lead.
