Round two in Saskatoon

Major junior hockey tournaments seemingly come in twos for the city of Saskatoon.

Less than two years after hosting the World Junior Hockey Championships, the Bridge City will now host the Canadian Hockey League's crown jewel, the MasterCard Memorial Cup in 2013. It's the second time Saskatoon will host the event, first doing so in 1989 -- two years before it would also host its first world junior tournament in 1991.

"Junior hockey has been brought to new levels from hosting a world junior championships - two world junior championships - in this community and now a second Memorial Cup will be a very historic event for the city of Saskatoon," Western Hockey League commissioner Ron Robison said.

Saskatoon is quickly becoming junior hockey's version of Hockeytown. Their bid beat out the other two finalists from Kelowna and Red Deer, in large part, Robison said, due to the home rink's much larger capacity, seating more than 15,000. It's more than double the capacity of Red Deer and Kelowna.

"I think that played into it, to some extent," Robison noted.

Perhaps not so coincidentally, several WHL markets are suffering through harsh economic times recently, with a rather dire circumstance facing the small market Swift Current Broncos. Funds generated from the tournament will be shared with each member team, and a larger capacity translates into more dollars for each team.

Aside from economics, the announcement comes as a bit of a surprise, given that the Saskatoon Blades went for broke last season, bowing out in a series sweep to the eventual league champion Kootenay Ice in the second round. The Blades made perhaps the largest trade in junior hockey history, acquiring Brayden Schenn and a third round pick from Brandon in exchange for three first-round picks (one in the import draft), a second-round pick and two highly-touted prospects in Ayrton Nikkel and Tim McGauley.

Although the Blades started strong with a 6-1 record on the ice this season, they're not exactly a league favourite to win this season. Head coach and general manager Lorne Molleken spoke of the potential to return 20 players to next year's team, when it really matters, but their team does not expect to have the same star power it did a year ago. Defenceman Duncan Siemens, for example, is far from a sure bet to return as a 19-year-old.

"We know we have a lot of work in front of us as far as a hockey team goes," Molleken said. "Our goal now is to not only host the Memorial Cup, but to win it. We look forward to the challenge in front of us and we can hardly wait."

The 2013 tournament will now give the Blades a chance to end what is now the CHL's longest championship drought. The Blades have yet to win a league championship since inception in 1967 -- for those scoring at home; the same year the Toronto Maple Leafs last won a Stanley Cup.

Similarly, the Shawinigan Cataractes will get their opportunity to end their drought, which is just three years shorter than Saskatoon's, when they host the tournament this May.

Although the Blades are the biggest winners, one can't help but feel for the Red Deer Rebels and the province of Alberta in particular. The last time the province hosted the national junior championship was in 1974, currently 37 years and counting.

During that time, 11 cities have hosted the tournament multiple times, a list now including Saskatoon. The Kitchener Rangers, for instance, hosted the tournament four times during that span in 1975, 1984, 1990 and 2008.

"I know that Kelowna and Red Deer both did make great bids and great presentations and it's almost a little bit of feeling bad for them in some ways because I know how much they were in anticipation of things as much as we were," Blades owner and governor Jack Brodsky said.

When the tournament was last in Alberta, as Calgary hosted in 1974, the Memorial Cup consisted of three teams without a host team's participation. There was no Albertan representation when they hosted in 1974, and there's no guarantee there will be this year or the next.

As someone who was born and raised in Saskatoon, there's no doubt in my mind the event will be a huge success and embraced by the entire province. But one can't help but feel for their neighbours to the West, a province that is surely way past due where hosting this tournament is concerned.