1994 MEMORIAL CUP
Kamloops Blazers, North Bay Centennials, Chicoutimi Sagueneens and Laval Titan
at Laval (Colisee)
Some Memorial Cup tournaments are memorable; some aren't.
Organizers can only hope going in that their tournament will be remembered for all the right things -- Dan Hodgson's 13 assists for the Prince Albert Raiders in 1983, Guy Rouleau's two six-point games for the Hull Olympiques in 1986; Joe Contini of the Hamilton Fincups scoring goals six seconds apart in 1976; Bruce Boudreau's five-goal game for the Toronto Marlboros in 1975; Rick Kowalsky of the Sault Ste Marie Greyhounds scoring three game-winning goals in 1991; and, Zac Boyer of the Kamloops Blazers doing the same thing in the same tournament.
Then there was the 1979 tournament which might have been remembered for the pregame brawl between the Brandon Wheat Kings and Trois-Rivieres Draveurs. Except that the final game -- won 2-1 in overtime by the Peterborough Petes over the Wheat Kings -- erased most memories of the sticks and gloves scattered all over the ice.
And then along came 1994.
Oh yes, hockey fans remember this one.
Unfortunately, they don't remember it because Kamloops won its second Memorial Cup in three seasons.
Rather, this one is remembered because of a postgame confrontation in a parking lot.
There were signs that things might get ugly in this tournament.
The Laval Titan would be the host team, having won that right by finishing with the QMJHL's best regular-season record.
Things went well enough in the playoffs, too, as the Titan rattled off 14 victories in their first 17 games. The last two of those victories were in the championship final against the Chicoutimi Sagueneens, a team coached by Gaston Drapeau, a 51-year-old veteran coach who had never won a QMJHL championship.
Incredibly, the Sagueneens turned it around and beat the Titan, of head coach Michel Therrien, in each of the next four games.
(When Therrien played with the Quebec Remparts in 1981, Drapeau was his coach.)
Never mind that three of the last four games were decided in overtime, with Chicoutimi winning each of them. This was not a happy Laval bunch and Jean-Claude Morrissette, the general manager and one of six brothers who owned the Titan, chose to let the world know all about it.
As Bill Beacon of The Canadian Press wrote:
"After Laval lost its final playoff game . . . Morrissette blasted the referees, suggesting they were either incompetent or biased against his team.
"The Titan had been hit with six consecutive penalties in the first period (of Game 6) by referee Sylvain Bibeau. Morrissette was also angry that referee Luc Lachapelle had allowed a controversial overtime goal in the previous game.”
Beacon went on to quote Therrien: "What (Morrissette) said was the truth. It was unacceptable and I support what he said 100 per cent.”
All of which was a rather strange way of doing business, especially when one considers that the tournament would be held in Laval's home rink and officiated by QMJHL referees -- including Bibeau and Lachapelle.
Still, Therrien said he didn't expect the referees to try extracting their pound of flesh during the tournament.
"No responsible adult would take revenge on young people,” Therrien told Beacon. "The ones who would pay are the 22 players who are trying to realize a dream.
"I would never accept that.”
However, as we shall see, Morrissette's verbal attack was only a harbinger -- a small harbinger -- of what was to come.
The Titan and Sagueneens would be the latest teams to try to end Quebec's national championship drought -- a Quebec-based team hadn't won the Memorial Cup since Guy Lafleur led the Remparts to the top of the mountain in 1971.
Laval was in the Memorial Cup tournament for a second straight season and the Titan brought back 11 players off that team, including goaltender Emmanuel Fernandez.
He had posted a spectacular 3.09 GAA in 51 regular-season games. He had also picked up five shutouts along the way. In the playoffs, he was simply amazing, going 14-5 with an incredible 2.63 GAA.
Also returning were Daniel Goneau, Yannick Dube, Michael Gaul, Marc Beaucage, Frederic Chartier, Sylvain Blouin, Jason Boudrias, Brant Blackned, David Haynes, Francois Bouillon and Patrick Boileau.
The best of the Laval forwards was Dube, a centre who led the QMJHL in goals (66) and points (141). Goneau, a left winger, was the best draft prospect. He had totalled 86 points, including 57 assists.
The Titan had the QMJHL's best regular-season record (49-22-1), scored more goals (346) than did any other team, and gave up 247, the league's second-best defensive record.
This season, the QMJHL used best-of-seven series and a round-robin series in its playoffs.
The Titan opened by taking out the Victoriaville Tigres in five games in a best-of-seven series.
Laval then went into a round-robin series with five other teams -- it was a home-and-home series -- and finished at 4-2, good enough to advance.
In a best-of-seven semifinal series, the Titan beat the Beauport Harfangs in four games.
That moved the Titan into the championship series against Chicoutimi.
There wasn't much doubt just who was Chicoutimi's best player.
That honour befell goaltender Eric Fichaud, who led the QMJHL in games played (63), minutes played (3,493), wins (37) and saves (1,707). In the playoffs, he went 16-10 with a sparkling 3.31 GAA.
(It is somewhat ironical, perhaps, that Fernandez and Fichaud are next to each other in the Goaltender Register section of the National Hockey League Official Guide and Record Book.)
The Sagueneens had been second in the QMJHL's regular season, their 43-24-5 record good for first place in the Frank Dilio Division.
They scored 340 goals, second to Laval's 346, while allowing 254, the QMJHL's fourth-best defensive record.
Michel St. Jacques finished tied for third in the points derby, with 126, including 58 goals. Danny Beauregard was right there, too, with 121 points, while rookie Alexei Lojkin, from Minsk, Russia, had 107.
Come the postseason, the offensive stars were Beauregard and Lojkin. They finished tied atop the playoff scoring race, each with 43 points in 27 games. Beauregard had 16 goals; Lojkin had 34 assists.
Yes, the Sagueneens played 27 playoff games just to reach the Memorial Cup.
They began by going seven games with the Granby Bisons and then went 4-3 in the six-team round-robin series.
Their semifinal series with the Hull Olympiques also went seven games, and they they took six games to eliminate Laval in the championship final.
The favorites in this tournament were the WHL's Kamloops Blazers of head coach Don Hay. A firefighter by profession, Hay was enjoying a leave of absence from the Kamloops Fire Department and he was finding out that he definitely had what it takes to be a first-rate coach.
The Blazers made their 11th consecutive appearance in the WHL's West Division final in the spring of '94 and went on to win the division for the seventh time in that period.
They had finished the regular season at 50-16-6, for 106 points. Kamloops was the only one of the league's 16 teams to earn more than 100 points.
The Blazers' leader was centre Darcy Tucker, a feisty sort who played a whole lot bigger than his 5-foot-10 stature would seem to allow. He finished second in the points derby with 140, including 52 goals.
Offensively, he got help from Rod Stevens (109 points, including 51 goals) and Jarrett Deuling (103 points).
They picked up veteran centre Louis Dumont in a midseason deal with the Regina Pats. He would total 97 points, including 44 goals.
The Kamloops lineup also included a trio of young up-and-comers in centre Hnat Dominechelli (67 points in 69 games) and right-wingers Jarome Iginla (29 points in 48 games) and Shane Doan (48 points in 52 games).
And they had perhaps the best young defence in the CHL, with veteran Scott Ferguson surrounded by the likes of Nolan Baumgartner, Jason Holland, Aaron Keller, Jason Strudwick and Brad Lukowich.
In goal, Rod Branch and Steve Passmore pretty much split the time. Passmore had a league-leading 2.74 GAA in 36 games. Branch was at 3.25 in 44 games.
The combination resulted in the Blazers leading the WHL in defence, allowing only 225 goals. The WHL hadn't seen defence like that since the Medicine Hat Tigers gave up 224 goals in 1984-85.
In the playoffs, Passmore would see by far the bulk of the playing time. And he would play every minute of four Memorial Cup games.
Kamloops opened the postseason by winning a best-of-seven division semifinal from the Seattle Thunderbirds in six games. And, in the division final, the Blazers got past the Portland Winter Hawks in six games.
The championship final, against the Saskatoon Blades, went the distance, the Blazers winning the seventh game 8-1 before 5,500 noisy fans in Riverside Coliseum.
Meanwhile, the North Bay Centennials were winning that city's first OHL championship.
Originally in St. Catharines, the franchise moved to Niagara Falls for the 1976-77 season and then relocated to North Bay prior to the 1982-83 season.
North Bay had reached the championship final once before, losing in seven games to the Oshawa Generals in the spring of 1987.
Behind the Centennials' bench in 1993-94 was veteran Bert Templeton, who would be that season's coach of the year. Templeton had coached the Hamilton Fincups to the 1976 Memorial Cup title.
The Centennials put up a 46-15-5 regular-season record, finishing atop the Leyden Division and setting a franchise record with 97 points.
North Bay scored more goals (351) than any other team in the OHL and also led in team defence as goaltenders Sandy Allan and Scott Roche allowed only 226 goals. Allan would be named to the third all-star team, but Roche, a first-year player, would play all three Memorial Cup games.
"A year ago, we finished seventh in our league and the prospects didn't look that bright,” Templeton said. "When you look at where we were a year ago to where we are now, we surprised a lot of people.”
The Centennials' lineup included right-winger Vitali Yachmenev, from Chelyabinsk, Russia, who led the OHL with 61 goals. He finished with 113 points and was named the OHL's rookie of the year.
Left-winger Jeff Shevalier had 101 points, including 52 goals, and was named to the first all-star team.
The best of the defencemen was Brad Brown, who totalled 32 points and 196 penalty minutes.
The Centennials opened the postseason with a first-round bye and then eliminated the Belleville Bulls in six games. The division final lasted five games before the Ottawa 67's were sent packing.
In the championship final, the Centennials met up with the Detroit Jr. Red Wings, who had finished on top of the Emms Division with a 42-20-4 record.
The final went the distance, with the Centennials winning the seventh game 5-4 in overtime.
The Centennials were at somewhat of a disadvantage simply because Game 7 of the OHL final was played on May 11 and, with the Memorial Cup to open on May 14, they spent the next day riding the bus to Montreal.
"We enjoy the bus -- it's home to us,” Templeton said. "It was our choice. We took the bus to Detroit and that's farther than Laval.
"If I had a preference, I'd like a couple of days rest. But we start right away and we have to be ready.”
The Centennials opened the tournament on May 14 by dropping a 5-4 overtime decision to Laval before 1,836 fans in the 3,003-seat Colisee.
Haynes, with just four goals in 61 regular-season games, potted the winner at 6:45 of the extra period.
The game belonged to Dube, however, as he figured in all of Laval's goals, scoring twice and setting up the other three.
Alain Cote and Chartier also scored for Laval.
Michal Burman, Bill Lang, Denis Gaudet and Yachmenev replied for North Bay. Yachmenev scored on a breakaway at 18:04 of the third period to force the overtime period.
The Centennials fell to 0-2 the next day when they were beaten 3-1 by Chicoutimi before 1,912 fans.
"Obviously, we're in a bad spot,” Templeton said. "But we're not losing because we're not trying. We can play better.”
The star in this one was Fichaud, who made 39 saves.
"The game was decided by the inability of our people to put the puck in the net,” Templeton said. "I give credit to their goalie.”
Beauregard, Andre Roy and Allan Sirois, into an empty net, scored for the Sagueneens. B.J. MacPherson had North Bay's lone goal.
It was the aftermath of the second game of May 13 that drew most of the attention.
On the ice, Kamloops outshot Laval 49-20 in posting a 5-4 victory in front of 1,843 fans.
Fernandez was outstanding, making 44 saves, including 21 in the first period.
"I was getting a lot of shots and I wasn't getting much help from my defence on rebounds,” Fernandez said. "You could tell we weren't ready.”
Deuling, Stevens, Ryan Huska, Tucker and Domenichelli scored for the Blazers.
"We had the shots, but we have to find a way to bury them,” said Dumont, who set up three goals. "But that was a good goaltender against us.”
Goneau and Beaucage had two goals each for the Titan.
Things turned sour in a big way in a parking lot following the game when Lachapelle, who had refereed the game between Kamloops and Laval, was injured.
Lachapelle, who filed a complaint with police, was left with cuts to his face and head and a slight concussion after being struck by flying glass when the window of the car in which he was riding was smashed.
According to QMJHL referee-in-chief Doug Hayward, Lachapelle and linesman Sylvain Cloutier were leaving the Colisee when their path was blocked by four men.
According to a report by The Canadian Press:
"Hayward said Cloutier told him a man approached Lachapelle on the passenger side of Cloutier's car and that, as the referee was lowering his window, another man punched the glass.
"Lachapelle . . . was treated at the scene in an ambulance and then taken to hospital, Hayward said.”
Lachapelle had handed out 15 minor penalties during the game, nine of them to Laval. The Titan were 2-for-6 on the power play; the Blazers were 2-for-9.
After the game, Therrien wouldn't comment about the officiating.
The following day, May 17, Morrissette resigned as Laval's general manager.
"I have resigned,” he said. "I have to respect the Memorial Cup committee, the league and my own organization. It's the only conclusion I could come to.”
Morrissette was one of three nominees as the CHL's executive of the year. However, he withdrew his name prior to the awards banquet. The award was presented to Kamloops general manager Bob Brown.
Morrissette was later charged with assault and causing property damage under $1,000. He was alleged to have broken the car window with his fist.
A CHL disciplinary committee fined the Titan $10,000 and barred Morrissette from the Colisee for the remainder of the tournament. He was also hit with a three-year suspension from all CHL events. The QMJHL later suspended him from all league activities with any team for the 1994-95 season.
After hearing from the disciplinary committee, Morrissette said: "People asked me what I expected and I said, ‘Life plus a day.' But they wanted to make sure this didn't happen again.”
At the same time, Therrien was placed on probation for the rest of the tournament.
Bob Hartley, Laval's head coach at the 1993 tournament, was named the Titan's interim general manager. He had spent the 1993-94 season as an assistant coach with the American Hockey League's Cornwall Aces, a farm club of the NHL's Quebec Nordiques.
Through all of this there was also discussion of what to now had been dismal attendance at the Colisee. None of the first three games had drawn more than 2,000 fans.
Between the assault on Lachapelle and the lack of fans, this was not going the way the QMJHL had hoped it would.
"I feel bad,” QMJHL president Gilles Courteau said. "This isn't what we expected.
"We've always had good crowds when we hosted the Memorial Cup, whether it was in Hull, Chicoutimi, Quebec . . . I don't know why it's so difficult this time.”
Morrissette was disappointed, too.
"It's a shame,” he said. "We've been a very successful organization but we haven't been successful at bringing people in.
"It's the smallest attendance in Memorial Cup history and that hurts me deeply. Everyone worked hard to make this successful. The City of Laval spent about $500,000. Yet people didn't come out.”
Attendance picked up a bit on May 17 as 2,621 fans watched Kamloops shut out Chicoutimi 5-0 to earn a bye into the tournament's championship game.
Tucker sparked the Blazers with three second-period goals. Chris Murray and Keller added one each for Kamloops, which outshot the Sagueneens 51-25.
"It was probably the easiest shutout I've ever had,” Passmore said.
The Blazers really had things rolling now and, on May 19, they beat North Bay 5-1 before 2,740 fans. That left the Centennials at 0-3 and out of the playoff picture.
Again, Tucker led the way for the Blazers. This time, he had a goal and two assists and now led the tournament in goals (five) and points (eight).
Stevens, Domenichelli, Murray and Tyson Nash also scored for the Blazers, who held period leads of 2-1 and 3-1 as they outshot the Centennials 41-17.
Lang scored for North Bay.
The game was refereed by Lachapelle in his first appearance since the incident four days earlier.
This left Chicoutimi and Laval to meet on consecutive nights, closing out the round-robin portion of the tournament in the first game and following that up with the semifinal game.
In the first game of the doubleheader, on May 19, the Sagueneens got second-period goals from Beauregard and Lojkin and 33 saves from Fichaud in a 2-0 victory before 2,979 fans.
Prior to the game, the Titan players taped the letters J.C. on the backs of their helmets. This was in support of the suspended Morrissette.
"We were flat,” Therrien said. "All the ingredients were there for an emotional game and then we didn't have one.”
The Sagueneens now had beaten the Titan in five straight games. And by beating the Titan in the round-robin game, Chicoutimi had won the designation as home team in the semifinal game even though it was to be played in Laval's arena.
The home-team designation didn't do the Sagueneens much good, however, as they were beaten 4-2 by the Titan in the May 20 semifinal game.
Laval held period leads of 2-1 and 3-2 in front of 2,953 fans.
Gaul, with two, Goneau and Beaucage scored for the Titan, with Roy and Steve Dulac scoring for Chicoutimi.
The Titan became the first QMJHL team to move into the final since the Drummondville Voltigeurs lost 5-1 to the Spokane Chiefs in 1991 and only the second QMJHL team in the final since 1986. That year, the Hull Olympiques lost 6-2 to the Guelph Platers.
On May 22, Kamloops won the Memorial Cup for the second time in three years, getting goals from five players in beating the Titan 5-3 in front of 3,119 fans.
"I went in there with high expectations and was expected to do well,” said Tucker, a draft pick of the Montreal Canadiens who was named the tournament's MVP. "I was in the backyard of the team that drafted me.
"I knew how much pressure there would be from the media and I knew the Canadiens would be watching. I put a lot of pressure on myself to do well.”
He scored what turned out to be the winning goal, one that gave Kamloops a 4-1 lead in the second period. It was his tournament-high sixth goal.
Tucker was one of seven players who had also been on the 1992 Memorial Cup champions. The others were Nash, Huska, Deuling, Ferguson, Murray and Stevens. Only Stevens was graduating, meaning the others might be heard from in 1995.
Dumont scored the only goal of the first period, at 12:20, and the Blazers went up 2-0 early in the second on goals by Huska (1:37) and Mike Josephson (2:02).
Goneau got Laval on the board with his fourth goal of the tournament at 3:08, but Tucker restored Kamloops' three-goal lead at 12:03.
Cote and Goneau pulled Laval to within one in the third period, scoring at 13:09 and 14:03.
That's when Hay called a timeout.
"He just said that we were going good until we let a couple of checks get away and unfortunately the shots went in,” said Dumont. "He just said we had to screw our heads back on.”
The Blazers hung on until Bob Maudie wrapped it up with an empty-net goal at 19:08.
And guess who refereed the final game?
Yes, it was Lachapelle.
Laval was 1-for-7 on the power play; the Blazers were 0-for-7.
While Tucker was hauling away the MVP award, Dube got the sportsmanship award and Fichaud was selected the top goaltender. The all-star team comprised Fichaud, Keller and Baumgartner on defence, and Tucker, Cote and Stevens on the forward line.
While Laval was hoping to win the QMJHL's first title since 1971, the Blazers became the 11th WHL team to win in the 23 years since a round-robin format was adapted. It was also the WHL's eighth title in 12 seasons.
NEXT: 1995 (Kamloops Blazers, Brandon Wheat Kings, Detroit Jr. Red Wings and Hull Olympiques)