There will not be a three-peat.
The back-to-back J. Ross Robertson Cup champion London Knights were sent packing by the Ontario Hockey League’s top team, the Guelph Storm, in a hard-fought five-game second round series. The loss now means the MasterCard Memorial Cup host Knights will have 34 days to lick their wounds before opening the national championship against the winner of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League on May 16.
“Wow. What a game and what a series,” Storm coach Scott Walker told the Guelph Mercury’s Tony Saxon after Friday’s Game 5 victory.
The series was much closer than its five-game conclusion would indicate. The Storm, who led the league in points in the regular season, executed to perfection, ending the Knights’ season well short of their goal of going into the MasterCard Memorial Cup through the front door.
“It sucks and it’s a tough pill to swallow,” forward Max Domi told the London Free Press’s Ryan Pyette. “It’s probably the worst feeling ever. But the real thing starts in about a month and we’re going to take that time to remember how this feels and use it as motivation when the Cup finally comes around.”
This is now the third straight year the MasterCard Memorial Cup host team failed to advance beyond the second round of its playoffs. In 2012, the Shawinigan Cataractes lost a seven-game series to Chicoutimi before eventually winning the tournament on home ice. The same such luck couldn’t find the Saskatoon Blades in last year’s tournament, when the Bridge City bunch were the first team eliminated in Saskatoon after being unceremoniously swept by the Medicine Hat Tigers in the first round.
Not all situations are created equally, however. It must be noted the Knights underwent more adversity than either of the previous two hosts with an infirmary that included its top shutdown defensive pairing of Zach Bell (broken leg) and Brady Austin (mono). Also missing was regular starting goalie Anthony Stolarz to suspension.
Unlike the Cataractes and Blades, the Knights actually finished with fewer points than the team that eliminated them. Guelph had five more than London in the regular season, while the Cataractes had 18 more points than Chicoutimi and Saskatoon finished 19 ahead of Medicine Hat.
Still, it doesn’t look good for the host team to fall so far short of competing for their league crown.
Having been to the previous two national championships and with a rested and presumably healthier lineup in mid-May, there’s no reason to label the Knights as underdogs the same way the Cataractes and Blades had been.
London’s loss extends the streak of host teams falling short in their playoffs. The last host to win their league was the 2008 Kitchener Rangers. The 2005 Knights remain the last team to win their league and the tournament in the same year.
BENNETT REMAINS ON TOP
Sam Bennett reclaimed his spot as the top draft eligible prospect among North American skaters judged by the NHL’s Central Scouting. After surprising most by grabbing the top spot ahead of Kootenay’s Sam Reinhart and Barrie’s Aaron Ekblad in the mid-term rankings, Bennett did so again while also earning a lofty comparison.
Ekblad and Reinhart followed in the second and third spots. However, as noted by Sam Cosentino, there’s no clear cut No. 1.
Bennett emerged atop the pack with his dynamic offensive game. His hype machine is currently working at a higher pace than that of his competitors.
https://twitter.com/TheKrausHouse/status/455478686964539392
Unfortunately for scouts and draft fanatics alike, Bennett won’t have a chance to further showcase his skills on the ice after his Kingston Frontenacs were eliminated in the opening round of the playoffs.
Charlottetown Islanders goalie Mason McDonald was the top-ranked junior goaltender, coming in at No. 2.
WARRIORS RETRO JERSEY “TOTALLY INSENSITIVE”
The Moose Jaw Warriors may need to reconsider their commemorative 30th anniversary vintage jersey designs. The team recently announced it would wear retro jerseys depicting an Aboriginal person riding a hockey skate while wielding a tomahawk.
While general manager Alan Millar told the Moose Jaw Times Herald the throwback jersey received positive feedback from fans – Millar also said the team would wear the jersey six to eight times next season – the logo is understandably receiving resistance from the Aboriginal community.
“We’re looking at cultural insensitivity across the whole sports industry … in the portrayal of Aboriginal people as they were shown in the Colonial era,” Barb Frazer, chair of the Cultural Diversity Advisory Committee, told the Times Herald. “Why bring back old stereotypes from past days? … These symbols are not useful in this day of reconciliation.”
The Warriors originally used these jerseys when the team relocated from Winnipeg, Man., to Moose Jaw, Sask. Millar indicated the team, which is owned by the community, would be willing to discuss it with the CDAC.
HO-SANG SUSPENDED 15 GAMES
The OHL threw the book at Windsor Spitfires forward Josh Ho-Sang.
The sophomore forward was suspended 15 games for shoving London’s Zach Bell in the lower back during Game 4 of their first round series. Bell suffered a broken leg on the play. Ho-Sang’s suspension will begin next season.
“We’re disappointed with the league’s ruling,” Spitfires president and head coach Bob Boughner said in a release. “In reviewing the play, we felt the contact between Josh and the London player was incidental in nature.”
The Windsor Star’s Bob Duff instead saw it as “pointless contact” which, in his mind, warranted a lengthy suspension.
– The Halifax Mooseheads assembled a jaw-dropping pre-game light show that raises the bar for teams to match.
– Mooseheads star Jonathan Drouin helped his team advance to the QMJHL semifinals with a series ending win over Gatineau on Friday Night Hockey. Drouin may lack size, but he’s making sure another element of his game won’t be scrutinized by the Tampa Bay Lightning when roster spots are handed out next season.
– Whether he admits it or not, there had to be a sense of satisfaction for Jeff Twohey, Oshawa’s GM and a former Peterborough Petes employee for 29 years, when the Generals swept the Petes in the second round. “Back then there was true hate,” Twohey told the Peterborough Examiner. “We would rarely ever talk to a guy like Sherry Bassin, Paul Theriault or Rick Cornacchia. It bordered on hatred, for sure. When we used to leave Peterborough back then to come to Oshawa you could hear a pin drop on the bus.”
– It’s time to ring the proverbial championship bell with a Western Hockey League Western Conference title fight between Kelowna and Portland. The Winterhawks should be prepared after a rather physical series with Victoria.
– The Baie-Comeau Drakkar swept their way to the QMJHL semifinals using a defensive game head coach Eric Veilleux referred to as his team’s “bread and butter.”
– Connor McDavid won the OHL’s sportsmanship award while teammate Dane Fox was named the league’s overage player of the year.
– If being Paul Coffey’s son wasn’t a big enough pair of skates to fill, imagine hearing your named referenced in the same breath as the last OHL defenceman to reach the 100-point plateau in a season. “I never want to compare anyone to Ryan Ellis, but there’s a little of that with his stature and one-time bomb,” Spitfires head coach Bob Boughner told the Windsor Star.
– The London Knights drafted Ben Gleason, the cousin of Toronto Maple Leafs defenceman Tim Gleason, a week ago. The American defenceman is planning on attending training camp with the Knights.
– Former Chicago Blackhawks goaltender Jimmy Waite is joining the Sherbrooke Phoenix as the team’s goalie coach.