Patrick King

BRANDON, Man. -- The volatility of momentum came to the forefront once again in the MasterCard Memorial Cup.

As in any sport, momentum plays a big factor in determining games, but never bigger than in junior hockey. The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League champion Moncton Wildcats enjoyed a heavy dose of it until their friend ‘Mo’ turned its back and jumped ship against them.

The Wildcats held leads of 3-0 and 4-2 before momentum took a vicious turn in Calgary’s favour. The Hitmen scored three goals in less than five minutes late in the third period with the strangest momentum-changing play capping the game with the winner.

Moncton defenceman David Savard’s wrap-around attempt hit a seam in the corner zamboni entrance and ricocheted towards Nicola Riopel’s net.

Unaware that Calgary’s Tyler Shattock was coming from behind his net, Riopel stopped the puck and surveyed his options. Shattock then swept the loose puck between an unsuspecting Riopel’s legs for the winner.

"It just surprised me a little bit," Riopel explained. "I didn’t see the guy coming - he was behind my net. It was a bad bounce, but at the same time, it’s part of hockey. But it’s pretty sad to know that you lose a game like that."

Momentum was clearly riding shotgun with the Western Hockey League champions shortly after Moncton’s Alex Saulnier potted his second goal of the game to give his team a 4-2 lead.

Calgary’s Brandon Kozun watched it all unravel in front of him from the bench as he was reduced to a spectator. Kozun played sparingly and was largely ineffective due to a right ankle injury sustained in Game 5 of the WHL final.

Although Kozun was unable to ride the wave from the ice, he could clearly feel it from the bench.

"Junior hockey is a different breed than the NHL," Kozun said. "It’s not as pen and paper as the NHL. You don’t play as many systems probably and that kind of situation where we score one and then they score and then we come back and score a couple. It’s a lot different and it’s pretty exciting to watch on the bench."

As the reporters in attendance quickly realized, there was no point in writing the story until the final whistle. Rarely in junior hockey is an outcome completely decided with five minutes remaining, with the exception of a margin such as that enjoyed by the Spitfires in Friday’s Windsor-Brandon tilt.

Perhaps the defensive game is that much better in the pro ranks or the margin of error in junior so slim. Riopel leaned towards the latter.

"With all the good teams (in the tournament) you can’t let up a little bit because you know they’re not champions for (nothing)," he said.

Moncton’s head coach, Danny Flynn, felt the human element creeping in during an otherwise safe lead for a team as defensively-cautious as the Wildcats.

"The players care so much and they so badly want to win," he said. "It’s human nature for you not to want to make a mistake and kind of subconsciously sit back."

The Wildcats won’t need to go back to the drawing board after leading and controlling the tempo the majority of the game. Moncton looked more like a WHL team with the steady, reliable defensive game and opportunistic offence.

There were plenty of positives to draw upon for the Wildcats and Flynn used a grass roots analogy in describing his team’s learning lesson.

"As I said to our guys, hockey teaches a lot about life and probably the biggest lesson you learn in hockey is what you learn the first day you put on a pair of skates," he said. "You fall, you get up. You fall again, you get up again. We fell today. We have to get up and show we have the insides that championship teams have."

No championship-winning team has been blessed with that feat without riding the wave of momentum for extended periods. The Wildcats harpooned that stealthy weapon and used it to their advantage throughout the first 50 minutes of the game.

But as momentum is known to do, it can turn and undo all the work it has done in a matter of minutes.

"Momentum’s a powerful force in hockey and they got momentum and seized it and pushed us hard and battled back to tie it," Flynn noted. "The last (goal) is one you’d like to have back… but that’s hockey and you make your own breaks."

And sometimes momentum determines the breaks. That’s the nature of the volatile and unpredictable world of junior hockey.