The Memorial Cup: A history . . . 1992

1992 MEMORIAL CUP
Seattle Thunderbirds, Kamloops Blazers, Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds and Verdun College-Francais
at Seattle (Coliseum and Center Ice Arena)

The Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds didn't do so well in the 1991 Memorial Cup in Quebec City where they played three games and lost them all.
You can bet that gnawed at their very being all through the 1991-92 season.
And when the 1992 tournament rolled around, the Greyhounds were there again. Coached by Ted Nolan, the Greyhounds became the first OHL team to capture consecutive titles since the Kitchener Rangers did it in 1981 and '82.
"Some people never win this once -- and we've done it two years in a row now,” Sault Ste. Marie left-winger Jason Denomme said.
"It's a great accomplishment but this is a totally different feeling than last year -- but how can you compare two great feelings? They both feel good so how do you know if one's better than the other?”
The Greyhounds finished on top of the Emms Division for the second straight season, their 41-19-6 record good for 87 points, one more than they recorded the previous season.
The 1991-92 team scored more goals than the previous one (335-303) and also allowed a few more (229-217).
For the second straight season, goaltender Kevin Hodson got his name on the Dave Pinkney Trophy, which goes to the "goalkeeper of the team which has had the least number of goals scored against at the end of the regular schedule.” A year earlier, Hodson shared the honor with Mike Lenarduzzi; this time around, he went it alone, recording a 3.33 GAA in 50 games.
Still, it seemed the Greyhounds were the Rodney Dangerfield of the OHL -- they just couldn't get any respect from their peers.
In 1990-91, the 'Hounds had only two players selected to one of the OHL's three all-star teams. In 1991-92, that total was zero. That's right . . . not one member of the league champions was selected to an all-star team. Nolan didn't even make it.
All they did was win their second straight championship, with players like Colin Miller, Jarret Reid, Tony Iob, Ralph Intranuovo, Rick Kowalsky, Shaun Imber, Drew Bannister, Tom MacDonald, Brian Goudie, Denomme, Hodson, Mark Matier, Perry Pappas and David Matsos -- all of whom had played in the 1991 Memorial Cup.
The Greyhounds opened the postseason with a first-round bye, and then took out Kitchener in seven games in one Emms Division semifinal series. In the division final, the Soo got past the Niagara Falls Thunder 4-1.
The championship final went the distance, with the Greyhounds winning the seventh game 4-2 over the visiting North Bay Centennials.
Verdun College-Francais was easily the best regular-season team in the QMJHL, its 101 points (48-17-5) good for first place in the Robert Lebel Division, 14 points ahead of the Hull Olympiques. The Trois-Rivieres Draveurs finished on top of the Frank Dilio Division, with 94 points.
This was the first season in Verdun for the franchise which had moved from Longueuil.
College-Francais did it all in the regular season, scoring a QMJHL-high 350 goals and allowing just 233, the second-lowest figure in the league.
The offensive leader had to be Robert Guillet, who had 118 points, including 56 goals, the second-highest total in the league. He finished seventh in the points race.
Dave Chouinard helped out with 97 points, including 63 assists, and David St. Pierre had 95 points, including 40 goals. And, Marc Rodgers, who came over from the Granby Bisons in a trade, had 109 points on the season, 33 of them in 29 games with his new club.
Defenceman Yan Arsenault was the only College-Francais player selected to the first all-star team, while Guillet was a second-team selection.
Philippe DeRouville and Andre Bouliane shared the goaltending through most of the regular season, but Eric Raymond was acquired from the Laval Titan and would play a key role down the stretch.
In 12 regular-season games with College-Francais, Raymond went 10-1-1 with a 2.43 GAA.
In the playoffs, DeRouville and Raymond split the time, but Raymond would play his club's three games in the Memorial Cup tournament.
College-Francais opened the playoffs with a six-game victory over St. Hyacinthe, even though they outscored the Laser only by one, 23-22.
Next up were the Shawiningan Cataractes. They, too, fell to College-Francais in six games.
And, in the championship final, the Verdun-based team took out Trois-Rivieres in seven games, winning the deciding game 5-3. College-Francais was outscored 26-25 in the series.
Guillet and teammate Dominic Rheaume led the league in playoff goals (14), with Guillet tops in points (25 in 19 games).
Of note, too, was the postseason play of defenceman Karl Dykhuis. He didn't score a goal, but had 12 assists.
In the west, observers of the WHL were beginning to recognize the Kamloops Blazers as something of a dynasty.
The Blazers, of head coach Tom Renney, finished on top of the West Division for the third straight season as they put together their third consecutive 50-victory season (51-17-4).
Zac Boyer was the premier offensive player on this team, his 109 points, including 40 goals, leaving him seventh in the scoring race. Boyer would go on to lead the WHL's playoff scoring race, with 29 points, including 20 assists.
Craig Lyons (44 goals), Shayne Green (43) and Mike Mathers (30) could score, too, but the strength of this team was its defence -- keyed by defencemen Darryl Sydor and Scott Niedermayer and goaltender Corey Hirsch.
Hirsch led the WHL with a 2.72 GAA and five shutouts in 48 games. When he needed relief it came from Dale Masson.
In the playoffs, Hirsch would go 11-5 with a 2.20 GAA and two shutouts.
The Blazers began the postseason with a four-game sweep of the Tacoma Rockets. In the West Division final, they took out the Seattle Thunderbirds, who would be the Memorial Cup's host team, in six games.
The WHL's championship final would feature the Blazers and the Saskatoon Blades, and it would go seven games.
The Blazers didn't leave any doubt in Game 7, however, as they buried the visiting Blades 8-0.
"This is the greatest,” Sydor said after that game. "There's great chemistry on this team.”
Chemistry may have been a problem on the Thunderbirds who, knowing they had a berth in the Memorial Cup as the host team, went through the regular season as though they were treading water and finished 33-34-5, good for only fourth place in the seven-team West Division.
The Thunderbirds, of head coach Peter Anholt, didn't have a scorer in the top 20. Nine of the WHL's 15 teams scored more goals than Seattle (292). Mike Kennedy led in goals (42), assists (47) and points (89). Eleven players finished in double figures in goals, but only six of those had more than 20 goals.
The key, then, was on defence where the Thunderbirds, with Chris Osgood providing stellar goaltending, gave up 285 goals, the seventh-best record in the league.
"Everyone thought that because we were in the Memorial Cup, we weren't trying,” Seattle defenceman Jeff Sebastian told the Regina Leader-Post. "We were a game below .500 and didn't have the season some people thought we'd have, but it wasn't for a lack of effort.
"It was the toughest year I've had in the league. It put a lot of pressure on the players. We were hosting it but we still wanted to earn our way. We ended up putting too much pressure on ourselves and we didn't play as loosely as we can.”
By the time the Memorial Cup started, the Thunderbirds hadn't played a game in three weeks.
"The coaches have been working the hell out of us,” Sebastian said. "Despite that, I wouldn't say we're in game shape. There's no substitution for playing.”
Kamloops, meanwhile, was eager to get at it.
"We're a little excited and a little nervous,” said 20-year-old centre Todd Johnson. "The guys who have been there before have told us that what goes on is incredible. You can't be anything but excited.”
Seattle would become only the second American city to play host to the Memorial Cup tournament, Portland having been home to it in 1983 and '86.
But the 1992 tournament didn't quite go the way organizers had planned and hoped.
The original plan was to play all games in the 11,923-seat Seattle Coliseum, the home facility of the National Basketball Association's Seattle SuperSonics.
However, when the Memorial Cup began the SuperSonics were still alive in the NBA playoffs. This necessitated a venue change for some of the hockey games, with the alternate site being the 4,139-seat Center Arena.
In the end, the tournament drew only 39,421 fans to eight games, which was way below expectations.
The tournament opened on May 9 with two games -- Sault Ste. Marie doubled Kamloops 6-3 before an estimated 4,000 fans, and Seattle got past Verdun 5-3 in front of about 5,000 fans.
Iob, Intranuovo, Reid, Kowalsky, Miller and Imber scored for the Greyhounds, who led 3-0 after the first period, upped it to 4-0 early in the second and then held off the Blazers who at one time had closed to within one at 4-3.
Johnson, Jeff Watchorn and Green scored for the Blazers, who outshot the Greyhounds 32-19 and actually drove Hodson from the game (Rob Stopar finished up) when Watchorn scored to cut the deficit to 4-2.
The Greyhounds had Chris Simon in the lineup after OHL commissioner David Branch cleared him to play. Simon, who missed 35 regular-season games due to suspensions, had 20 goals and 26 assists in 33 games. But he was suspended for the final three games of the championship series after a spearing incident.
In the other game, the Thunderbirds got three goals from George Zajankala, a 13-goal scorer in the regular season who wouldn't score again in the tournament. Tyler Quiring and Blake Knox added the other Seattle goals.
The Thunderbirds outshot Verdun 37-28, as Raymond and Osgood each went the distance.
Kamloops got back on track the following day with a 4-0 victory over Verdun in front of 3,587 fans.
Hirsch stopped 20 shots in recording the tournament's first shutout since May 13, 1987, when Mark Fitzpatrick of the Medicine Hat Tigers blanked the QMJHL's Longueuil Chevaliers 6-0.
Boyer and Lyons had two goals each for Kamloops, which fired 40 shots at Raymond.
"We knew this was it for us,” Boyer said. "After losing the opener, our leaders had to lead.
"Darryl Sydor and myself had to dominate the game, along with Scott Niedermayer. We had to take charge, something we didn't do against the Soo.”
Boyer admitted that the Blazers were doubting themselves a bit after losing to the Greyhounds. That changed with the victory over Verdun.
"Hirsch played great today and now we've got our confidence back,” Boyer said. "We don't doubt ourselves any longer.”
While the teams were competing on the ice, the CHL admitted it had been considering a format change to the Memorial Cup, taking it back to a best-of-seven championship final.
That, however, wasn't to happen.
"It has been put on hold,” CHL president Ed Chynoweth told the Regina Leader-Post. “There isn't enough support for it right now to carry it to the next step.”
Under a proposal designed by Branch, the OHL and QMJHL would play off to determine one representative, with the WHL champion getting the other berth.
The two teams would play a national final with games being played in both cities.
"Some people were worried there would be a problem generating the same financial return as you can from a successful tournament,” Chynoweth said. "As well, the American teams are very concerned about going this late in the season against baseball and basketball.”
College-Francais was eliminated on May 12 when it dropped a 4-2 decision to Sault Ste. Marie before 3,454 fans.
Iob, Reid and Kowalsky scored power-play goals for the winners, with Goudie adding the other goal. Rheaume and Martin Tanguay scored for Verdun, which lost all three of its games.
The teams were tied 1-1 after the first period. Reid gave the Soo a 2-0 lead with the second period's only goal, and Kowalsky made it 3-0 early in the third. Goudie upped it to 4-0 before Tanguay ruined Hodson's shutout bid at 13:03 on a power play.
The Greyhounds clinched a spot in the final on May 13 by beating Seattle 4-3 in front of about 5,500 fans.
The winner was Kowalsky's shorthanded goal -- the first shorthanded score of this tournament -- at 17:58 of the third period. It was Kowalsky's third game-winning goal of the tournament, a Memorial Cup record that would be equaled by Boyer later in the week.
Kowalsky blocked a shot at the Soo's blue line and went in alone to beat Osgood.
"I just got lucky,” Kowalsky said. "The shot hit me in the skate lace and bounced straight ahead into open ice.”
The Soo, loser of all three games it played in 1991, was now 3-0.
"We're pretty excited because you always want the opportunity to play for the Cup,” Nolan said. "We were embarrassed going 0-3 last year and a lot of these guys have been preparing for this for a year.”
Simon, Bannister and Reid also scored for the Soo, which led 1-0 after the first period. The teams went into the third tied at 2-2.
Sebastian, Eric Bouchard and captain Kurt Seher scored for Seattle.
"I thought we played better tonight than we did in the first game when we won,” offered Anholt. "I'm really pleased with the way our guys handled themselves against a very good team.”
Next on the agenda would be back-to-back games between Kamloops and Seattle. The first game would be the final game of the round-robin portion of the tournament. The second game would send its winner into the final against the Greyhounds.
The Blazers won the first of those games, 3-1 on May 14 before about 5,500 fans.
Niedermayer was easily the best player on the ice and it showed on the scoresheet, where he had a shorthanded goal and two assists.
"It was important for us to play a full 60 minutes, something we hadn't done in the tournament,” Niedermayer said. "It's expected of me to play better and I think I did.”
Boyer and Lance Johnson had the Blazers' other goals. Turner Stevenson, likely the best Seattle forward in the tournament, replied for the Thunderbirds, who were outshot 27-19.
The Blazers lost Green to an ankle injury, leaving a void on their top line with Boyer and Mathers.
The Thunderbirds were being hurt by a power play that had inexplicably gone in the tank. After going 3-for-10 in the opener against Verdun, the T-Birds found themselves scoreless in 13 tries in their next two games.
"We have to bank in a couple power-play goals,” Anholt said, looking ahead to the semifinal game. "We must put more pressure on the Kamloops defence and work better down low. Some of our veterans have to play better.”
It was Mathers who rose to the occasion in the semifinal game on May 16. He totaled a tournament record-tying six points -- three goals and three assists -- as the Blazers won 8-3 before about 7,200 fans.
Others with six points in a game were Joe Contini (Hamilton, 1976) and Guy Rouleau, who did it twice with Hull in the 1986 tournament.
Defenceman David Wilkie opened the scoring on a Kamloops power play -- the Blazers would go 3-for-5, while the Thunderbirds were 1-for-6 with the man advantage.
Duane Maruschak tied it for Seattle at 14:50 of the first period, only to have Mathers score a power-play goal before the period ended.
Mathers added two more second-period goals as Kamloops blew it open.
Todd Johnson, Niedermayer, Steve Yule and Lyons also scored for the Blazers, with Stevenson and Kennedy scoring for Seattle after it trailed 8-1.
(Two days later, Anholt announced that he was leaving the Thunderbirds because of various differences with president and governor Russ Williams.)
By that time the Blazers and their fans were celebrating.
Boyer's goal with 14.6 seconds left in the third period gave them a 5-4 victory over the Greyhounds in the final. It was Boyer's tournament record-tying third game-winning goal and Kamloops' first national title.
"I guess I can thank Ed Patterson because he came off the ice,” Boyer said. "He got speared in the stomach and threw up. He came to the bench and I replaced him.
"We did it the hard way and we earned it. There's no better way than that.”
Boyer took a lead pass from Niedermayer and scored on the breakaway.
"Niedermayer hit me at the right time,” Boyer said. "He could have iced it, but that's why he's such a great player.”
Boyer and Johnson each scored twice for Kamloops. Mathers added the other goal and finished with a tournament-high six assists and 10 points.
The Blazers jumped out to a 3-0 lead before the game was 15 minutes old on power-play goals by Mathers and Boyer and an even-strength marker by Johnson.
But the Soo got back into it when Simon and Miller scored before the first period ended.
Miller tied it with the second period's only goal.
Johnson put Kamloops ahead 4-3 at 3:45 of the third period, and Simon tied it at 15:33. That set the stage for Boyer's heroics.
"They got a lucky bounce for that breakaway,” Hodson said of Boyer's game-winning play. "I tried to poke-check and missed. It's my job in the Memorial Cup final to make the big saves. When you don't, you lose.”
Niedermayer, who made the fine pass that sent Boyer in alone, offered: "I was in the right place at the right time. I just had to go about four feet to get over the blue line and make the pass to Boyer.
"Putting in three years of hard work in the juniors has paid off. The MVP thing was nice, but the Memorial Cup is what it's all about.”
While Niedermayer was named MVP, Hirsch was selected top goaltender thanks to his 2.60 GAA over five games. The sportsmanship award went to Miller.
Named to the all-star team were Hirsch, Niedermayer and Bannister on defence, and forwards Miller, Mathers and Stevenson.

NEXT: 1993 (Swift Current Broncos, Peterborough Petes, Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds and Laval Titan)

Keeping Score

From The Daily News of Saturday, June 26, 2008 . . .

Before the Chicago White Sox and Chicago Cubs met in a series last weekend, the two managers — Ozzie Guillen and Lou Piniella — filmed a series of goofy TV commercials in which they were rapping, riding bikes and walking their dogs. Later, Guillen told the Chicago Sun-Times: "Lou Piniella does two things better than me. Managing and eating. It took them three weeks to find a (body) double for Piniella. For mine, you just go to a model agency." . . . While getting swept by the Cubs at Wrigley Field, the White Sox managed to sound off a time or two. Here's Guillen: "The rats look bigger than a pig out there. You want to take a look? I think the rats out there are lifting weights." And here's catcher A.J. Pierzynski, commenting on Chitown's north side fans: "They're idiots. It's like what Lee Elia said: 'Eighty-five percent of the people work, the other (bleeps) come out here.' "
Tyler Redenbach, who once called Kamloops home, has signed to play the 2008-09 hockey season with Odense of Denmark's Elitserien. He split last season between the AHL's Grand Rapids Griffins and San Antonio Rampage before helping the Arizona Sundogs to the Central league championship. . . . Pete McEntegart of SI.com, after the NBA final: "Boston won the series four games to two. That's nearly as impressive as the refs, who went a perfect 6-0." . . . Keith Sorrell, a 37-year-old who lives in Liverpool, has eaten nothing but Mars Bars for the last 17 years. Seriously. Which resulted in Guy Patrick of the London Sun noting that Sorrell is "living proof that man can live on Mars."
George Carlin, aka The Hippy Dippy Weatherman, who died Sunday, once offered: "Competitive eating isn't a sport. It's one of the seven deadly sins. ESPN recently televised the U.S. Open of Competitive Eating because watching those athletes at the poker table was just too damned exciting. What's next, competitive farting? Oh wait, they're already doing that. It's called The Howard Stern Show." . . . Referring to tennis, Carlin said: "Technically, tennis is an advanced form of ping pong. In fact, tennis is ping pong played while standing on the table. Great concept, not a sport." . . . As for swimming, Carlin said it wasn't a sport either because it is only "a way to keep from drowning."
Here's NBC's Jay Leno: "Mathematicians at Stanford University have calculated the smallest number known to man. It's the Nielsen ratings golf would get without Tiger Woods." . . . Jerry Crowe, in the Los Angeles Times, after you know who had knee surgery: "Encouraging news for Tiger Woods, but when was the last time a doctor said he was displeased with a surgery he had just finished performing?" . . . What if when Tiger comes back he's not the same Tiger? With the torque he puts on that left knee, especially off the tee, it could happen. And then what will the PGA and the networks do? . . . Headline at theonion.com: Man Who Used Stick To Roll Ball Into Hole In Ground Praised For His Courage. . . . Ian Hamilton, in the Regina Leader-Post: "Woods said he'll undergo reconstructive surgery on the anterior cruciate ligament in his knee, which has been bothering him since he was kneecapped by TSN hockey analyst Mike Milbury for suggesting no one watches hockey anymore."
One more from Hamilton: "The Toronto Blue Jays fired manager John Gibbons and replaced him with Cito Gaston, who previously managed the team from 1989 through '97. The Jays wanted to hire former manager Bobby Mattick before remembering he died in 2004." . . . So, you're a minor hockey parent and you pay your hard-earned money to register your children and you are wondering what went on at B.C. Hockey's annual meeting. Well, for your edification you should surf on over to B.C. Hockey's website (bchockey.net) and find the press release titled: Recap of the 2008 Annual General Meeting. Read it and then convince yourself that your hard-earned cash isn't funding a secret society. . . . Dwight Perry, in the Seattle Times: "Looks like Spurs coach Gregg Popovich and his sore-ankled guard have finally compromised over the Olympic Games. So Manu Ginobili still gets to compete for Argentina in Beijing — but only for the diving team."
Bill Dwyre, in the Los Angeles Times: "Interestingly, one of the mandates in the NBA the last few years, to the point where referees were calling trigger-quick technicals in exhibition games, was for players and coaches to stop showing up the officials after calls. No throwing up hands in anguish, no yelling at them, getting in their face, stomping off in disgust. That disappeared in the playoffs, where every foul call triggered Hamlet. If players could play as well as they can act, the basketball would be unbelievable. If the NBA is looking for a new slogan for next season, how about this: Shut Up and Play." . . . Ted Wyman, in the Winnipeg Sun: "Recent reports suggest Roger Clemens and a host of other baseball players have been taking Viagra for years to help with their on-field performance as well as extra-curricular activities. Guess that explains why some people call the game hardball."
Is it just me or is putting Oren Koules and Len Barrie in charge of an NHL team kind of like giving a franchise to Wayne Campbell and Garth Algar? . . . Game On! . . . Greg Cote, in the Miami Herald: "My friends say I'm cheap, and I guess it's true. Put it this way: Yesterday I saw a 'Free Tibet' bumper sticker and followed the car for 40 miles to ask where the line forms." . . . Congratulations to Nick Swaine of Kamloops for being saluted as B.C. Hockey's official of the year during the association's awards banquet in Penticton a week ago. Swaine is a local referee/linesman whose presence on the lines is a welcome sight at WHL games. . . . Congrats, too, to former Kamloops Blazers defenceman Benn Olson. He left here an enforcer and turned himself into a hockey player with the Seattle Thunderbirds, and on Friday he signed his first pro contract, with the AHL's Albany River Rats.
Flip Saunders, fired as head coach of the NBA's Detroit Pistons despite putting up 179 victories over his three seasons and with a year left on his contract, plans to spend the next year golfing and fishing. The Pistons will pay him $5.5 million while he's doing that. . . . A Harvard University study has discovered that the average American walks about 900 miles a year. . . . Meanwhile, according to the American Medical Association, the average American drinks 22 gallons of booze per year. . . . "This means," notes Jack Finarelli over at sportscurmudgeon.com, "on average, Americans get about 41 miles to the gallon. Kind of makes you proud to be an American."

Gregg Drinnan is sports editor of The Daily News. He is at gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca. Keeping Score, which usually appears Saturdays, is going on hiatus.

The Memorial Cup: A history . . . 1991

1991 MEMORIAL CUP
Spokane Chiefs, Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, Drummondville Voltigeurs and Chicoutimi Sagueneens
at Quebec City (Le Colisee)

Oh, yes, this was going to be the Memorial Cup to end all Memorial Cups.
Yes, a lot of people were waiting anxiously for this tournament.
The script had been written well in advance and it went something like this:
Centre Eric Lindros, now all of 18 years of age, would lead the defending-champion Oshawa Generals into Quebec City, home of the NHL's Nordiques.
You have to understand that the Nordiques were to have the first selection in the NHL's 1991 entry draft later that summer. Lindros was certain to be the first pick.
Except that Lindros was making noises about not wanting to be part of the Nordiques organization.
No matter.
All of the intrigue and anticipation was for naught. That's because the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, of head coach Ted Nolan, hadn't read the script.
The hockey fans in the Soo felt they had a vested interest in all of this, too. After all, the Greyhounds had selected Lindros in the 1989 OHL midget draft only to have him refuse to report.
"I have nothing against the city, just the location, the bus travel with the team and the proximity to my (Toronto) home,” Lindros would explain umpteen-dozen times. “They got five players, draft picks and cash in return, so they can't complain.”
The Greyhounds picked up right-wingers Mike DeCoff and Jason Denomme, goaltender Mike Lenarduzzi, left-winger Joe Busillo and defenceman Drew Bannister as part of the package for Lindros.
All five of those players would play in the 1991 Memorial Cup tournament. In fact, Denomme would play in back-to-back tournaments, while Bannister would appear in three consecutive tournaments as the 'Hounds made it to three in a row.
All eyes were on the OHL championship final, which pitted Oshawa against Sault Ste. Marie.
The teams split the first two games in Oshawa and headed for the Soo, where there were concerns about security and fans were asked not to go beyond the norm in their attempts to razz Lindros.
The 'Hounds thrilled 4,590 fans on May 2 with a 6-5 overtime victory, the winner coming -- ironically -- on a goal by Denomme at 2:29 of the extra session.
One night later, Sault Ste. Marie won again, this time by an 8-5 count, with DeCoff contributing two goals.
Fears for Lindros's safety proved unfounded, although he absorbed a lot of verbal abuse. And the Soo fans outdid themselves with signs and banners, one of which read ‘The Soo Wants The Cup, Eric Wants His Mommy’.
The series then shifted to Oshawa where the Generals posted a 4-2 victory on May 5 to stay alive and send the series back to the Soo. That loss was only the Greyhounds' second in their last 22 games.
And the Greyhounds had the last laugh on May 6 when they dumped the Generals 4-2 to take the series in six games. Busillo scored one of the Soo's goals.
Due to illness, Lindros saw only spot duty in Game 6.
"It's poetic justice,” offered Sherry Bassin, the Greyhounds' general manager. "We gave them Eric Lindros and they took him to the cup last year. We got the guys who wanted to be here.”
Lenarduzzi led the OHL with a 3.23 goals-against average -- he and Kevin Hodson combined to allow the fewest goals in the OHL that season, 217 for a goals-against average of 3.27. Busillo totaled 97 points, including 31 goals, while Denomme had 20 goals and 34 assists.
The Greyhounds had gone 42-21-3 -- Oshawa was 47-13-6 atop the Leyden Division -- en route to a first-place finish in the Emms Division.
They would go on to win their second OHL championship since the franchise was granted prior to the 1972-73 season. The other title? Terry Crisp coached them to the 1984-85 championship. At the 1985 Memorial Cup, they dropped an 8-3 semifinal decision to the eventual champion Prince Albert Raiders.
This time around, the Greyhounds roared through the OHL playoffs. They brushed aside the Hamilton Steelhawks in four games to earn a bye into the division final where they swept the Niagara Falls Thunder.
Next up was Oshawa in the championship final and, of course, the Greyhounds won that in six games.
This was a team built on goaltending and defence. Lenarduzzi was outstanding and Hodson's 3.22 GAA was the best of any first-year goaltender in the OHL.
Still, this was a team that had to fight for every ounce of respect it could get. The Greyhounds that season were virtually ignored when it came to postseason awards. In fact, only two players were named all-stars -- defenceman Adam Foote was on the first team, Lenarduzzi was the third team goaltender -- and Nolan was named coach of the second team.
While the Greyhounds were winning the OHL title, the QMJHL was deciding its championship but, with the Memorial Cup scheduled for Quebec City, both finalists would advance.
And both teams -- the Chicoutimi Sagueneens and Drummondville Voltigeurs -- seemed worthy representatives.
Chicoutimi, in the Frank Dilio Division, had finished with the QMJHL's best regular-season record (43-21-6) and, with Felix Potvin getting the bulk of the playing time in goal, had allowed only 223 goals, the best defensive record in the league. It perhaps said something that Potvin and defenceman Eric Brule were the two Chicoutimi players named to the first all-star team, which also included head coach Joe Canale.
On the other side of the coin was an offence that scored 299 goals, the QMJHL's fourth-highest figure.
And while the Sagueneens didn't have a scorer in the regular season's top 10, centre Steve Larouche topped the playoff scoring parade with 33 points, including 13 goals, in 17 games.
Chicoutimi opened the postseason by ousting the Shawinigan Cataractes in six games and followed that up with a seven-game victory over the Laval Titan.
Drummondville, meanwhile, finished third in the Frank Dilio Division, its 42-25-3 record leaving it five points behind Chicoutimi.
The Voltigeurs, under head coach Jean Hamel, were led offensively by Denis Chasse. He finished fifth in the QMJHL points race, with 101, including 47 goals.
Still, defenceman Patrice Brisebois was the only one of the Voltigeurs named to the first all-star team. Defenceman Guy Lehoux was a second-team selection, with left-winger Rene Corbet being named a third teamer along with Hamel.
Drummondville opened the playoffs against the high-flying Trois-Rivieres Draveurs, who were led by QMJHL scoring king Yanic Perreault (187 points, including 87 goals) and runnerup Todd Gillingham (148 points, including 102 assists). The Voltigeurs won it in six games, outscoring the Draveurs 30-19 in the process.
In their semifinal series, the Voltigeurs took out Longueuil College-Francais in four games, giving up 18 goals while scoring 30.
And when it came to the final, it was no contest -- Chicoutimi beat Drummondville in four games. The Sagueneens scored 19 goals in the final, but surrendered only 11.
The Spokane Chiefs, meanwhile, were running roughshod through the WHL.
Under head coach Bryan Maxwell, the Chiefs put together a 48-23-1 regular-season record, second only to the Kamloops Blazers (50-20-2).
But when it came to the playoffs it was no contest.
The Chiefs opened with two best-of-nine West Division series, taking apart the Seattle Thunderbirds 5-1 before sweeping Kamloops, 5-0.
Then, in the best-of-seven WHL championship series, the Chiefs swept aside the Lethbridge Hurricanes.
When all was said and done, the Chiefs had posted a 14-1 playoff record, while scoring 63 goals and allowing only 33.
Offensively, the Chiefs were sparked by the one-two punch of Ray Whitney and Pat Falloon.
Whitney won the regular-season scoring championship with 185 points in 72 games and followed that up by grabbing the playoff title, too, with 31 points.
Falloon's 138 points, in 61 games, left him fourth in the regular season. He added 24 points in 15 postseason games.
The Chiefs also got offence from Mark Woolf, who had 41 goals and 49 assists during a season in which, as would be revealed during the Memorial Cup, he had battled his own demons.
This was a Spokane team that had surrendered 275 regular-season goals, second only to Kamloops (247). But the Chiefs' figure perhaps was somewhat misleading because Spokane general manager Tim Speltz had swung a deal at the trade deadline to acquire goaltender Trevor Kidd from the Brandon Wheat Kings.
The Chiefs went 31-6-0 after getting Kidd, who played every minute of every playoff game, going 14-1 with a remarkable 2.07 goals-against average.
"This time last year I was two months into summer vacation,” said Kidd who, along with Falloon, had helped Canada to a gold medal at the 1991 world junior championship in Saskatchewan. "Now it's nice and sunny out and I'm going to the Memorial Cup.”
Defensively, he got help from the likes of Bart Cote, who also was acquired from Brandon, Jon Klemm and Kerry Toporowski. It's also worth noting that Toporowski totalled 505 regular-season penalty minutes and 108 more in the WHL playoffs. He would then set a Memorial Cup tournament record with 63 penalty minutes. Add it all up and Toporowski incurred 676 penalty minutes that season.
Cote, for one, felt Kidd gave the Chiefs an edge.
"It's probably the best I've ever seen Trevor play,” Cote said.
As for Kidd, he said: "We have Pat Falloon and Ray Whitney, guys who can put the puck in the net, but we do it with everybody.”
The Chiefs would be the first American team in the Memorial Cup since 1986 when the Portland Winter Hawks were in as the host team.
The 1991 tournament opened on May 11 with Drummondville beating Sault Ste. Marie 4-2 in front of an estimated 3,000 spectators.
The teams were tied 1-1 going into the third period -- Hugo Proulx having scored for the Voltigeurs in the first period, Tony Iob for the Greyhounds in the second -- when Drummondville exploded for three goals.
Brisebois (5:39), Claude Jutras Jr. (7:23) and Ian Laperriere (8:09) gave the Voltigeurs a 3-1 lead before the Soo's Rick Kowalsky closed out the scoring.
Goaltender Pierre Gagnon made 34 saves for the Voltigeurs, while Lenarduzzi stopped 30 at the other end.
On May 12, Potvin proved his worth with a 33-save performance as Chicoutimi downed Sault Ste. Marie 2-1 in front of 9,297 fans.
And, before 5,675 fans, Spokane drubbed Drummondville 7-3.
Stephane Charbonneau got Chicoutimi on the board against the Greyhounds with a power-play goal four minutes into the opening period.
The teams played through a scoreless second period, before Iob forged a tie just 50 seconds into the third period. It remained for Sebastien Parent to win it at 2:59 of the third, the goal dropping the Greyhounds' record to 0-2.
The game between Spokane and Drummondville featured 206 penalty minutes -- 29 of them to Toporowski, who totalled two minors, three majors and a game misconduct -- as the teams went at it tooth and nail.
Falloon led the Chiefs, who were ahead 2-1 and 3-2 by periods, with three goals, all of them in the third period, and Woolf and Whitney added two each.
Chasse scored all three of Drummondville's goals.
The Chiefs were at the eye of the storm again on May 14 when they rocked Chicoutimi 7-1 in a game that featured eight ejections, 226 penalty minutes and a third-period line brawl just as CHL president Ed Chynoweth was issuing fines resulting from the Spokane-Drummondville game.
(The Chiefs and Voltigeurs were fined $500 each. At the same time, Chicoutimi and Sault Ste. Marie were fined $250 each for a pregame pushing incident prior to their game on May 12.)
"These types of incidents are not the type of game we are trying to sell,” Chynoweth said.
The Chiefs' victory over the Sagueneens clinched a berth in the final even though they had yet to play the Greyhounds.
"It will be my job to keep them focused and not let them think about the final,” said Maxwell, who was head coach of the 1987 Memorial Cup-champion Medicine Hat Tigers.
Whitney, for one, didn't think focus would be a problem.
"Everybody wants that ring on their finger and it's hard not to be thinking about it,” he said.
The Chiefs started quickly -- Toporowski, who had 17 penalty minutes and wasn't around at the end, scored 42 seconds into the game and Brent Thurston made it 2-0 at 3:27 -- and Chicoutimi was never able to recover in front of 9,320 fans, many of whom had traveled the 200 kilometres from the Saguenay region of Quebec to cheer on their favorites.
Thurston finished with two goals, as did Falloon, who now had five goals in two games. Woolf, a 20-year-old right winger, chipped in with a goal and four assists, the five points falling one short of the tournament's single-game record. Woolf now was leading the tournament in points, with eight.
Whitney had the other goal for Spokane, which outshot Chicoutimi 29-16.
Potvin stopped 18 of 23 shots before giving way to Sylvain Rodrique at 2:04 of the third period with the Chiefs ahead 5-1.
Larouche had Chicoutimi's lone goal.
An interested spectator at the game was George Brett, all-star third baseman and three-time American League batting king with baseball's Kansas City Royals. Brett and brothers Bobby, John and Ken owned the Chiefs.
The Brett brothers, who already owned the Class A Spokane Indians baseball team, had bought controlling interest in the Chiefs in 1990. They paid about US$700,000 and felt at the time that they had overpaid.
By the spring of 1996, it was believed that the Chiefs were the most valuable major junior franchise in the CHL. If they were for sale, and they weren't, the asking price would have been in the neighborhood of $5 million US.
In the spring of 1991, however, George Brett was on the disabled list with torn knee ligaments. He had been in Milwaukee with the Royals on May 12 when he had a discussion with teammate Terry Puhl, an outfielder from Melville, Sask. The subject of the Memorial Cup came up during the conversation, the first time Brett had heard of it.
"(Terry) said this was the biggest thing in these kids' lives,” Brett said. "That's when I knew.”
Brett wouldn't be able to stay for the entire week but said if the Chiefs were in the final he knew where there was a "Canuck bar” about two blocks from his home in Kansas City.
"I will be at the bar, sitting there with my friends, hopefully watching the Chiefs win,” he said.
Woolf, who admitted publicly to an alcohol problem during the tournament, scored again -- giving him four goals and five assists in three games -- in an 8-4 victory over the Soo on May 15 that eliminated the Greyhounds.
It was revealed that during the season Maxwell had sent Woolf home to Redcliff, Alta.
"I had a couple of beers and missed curfew five times,” said Woolf, who had played for Maxwell with the 1986-87 Tigers. "When I left, it was like my dog died.”
A unanimous vote by his teammates led to his return to the team.
"I screwed up and I am getting a chance to redeem myself,” Woolf said. "I hurt a lot of people and I know it.
"I was lucky to come back. You don't know how good you've got something until I was sitting at home and I wondered what I was going to do.”
He added: "I don't want to see it in the papers as an alcohol problem, but it is the truth. I haven't had a drink in months.”
The Chiefs buried the Greyhounds early, striking for the first period's only five goals in front of 5,277 fans.
Besides Woolf's goal, the Chiefs got two goals each from Whitney and Falloon and singles from Mike Jickling, Thurston and Shane Maitland.
DeCoff, Denny Lambert, Wade Whitten and Mark Matier replied for the Greyhounds, who were outshot 25-20.
Maxwell went the distance with goaltender Scott Bailey in this game. It was his first appearance since late in the regular season.
Falloon and Whitney now were tied for the points lead, each with 10, including five goals.
And what of Toporowski? Well, he added to his total by 14 minutes, thanks to two minors and a misconduct, all in the first period.
All of this led to a meaningless round-robin game in which Drummondville beat Chicoutimi 5-3 on May 16. The teams would meet again the following night in the semifinal game.
On May 16, the Voltigeurs, who held period leads of 3-0 and 3-2, got goals from Alexandre Legault, Proulx, Corbet, Laperriere and Brisebois. Danny Beauregard, Parent and Charbonneau scored for Chicoutimi in front of 5,875 fans.
One night later, before 8,156 fans, Drummondville earned the right to meet Spokane in the final by beating Chicoutimi 2-1 in overtime.
Drummondville, beaten in four straight by Chicoutimi in the QMJHL final, won the semifinal after 11:26 of overtime when Chicoutimi defenceman Steve Gosselin accidentally knocked a centring pass by Laperriere into his own net.
Proulx opened the scoring for Drummondville at 7:27 of the first period, Larouche replied at 11:29 and that was it until Laperriere was credited with the winner.
As it turned out it didn't much matter who was in the final, because there was no stopping the Chiefs.
On May 20, Spokane downed Drummondville 5-1. It marked the second straight season in which one team went through the tournament unbeaten. Oshawa had turned the trick in 1990.
This was the second time an American-based team had won the Memorial Cup, the other being 1983 when Portland won it.
"This feels better than winning the world junior,” said Falloon, who scored the game's final goal. He finished with eight goals, tying the tournament record (Dale Hawerchuk, Cornwall, 1981; Luc Robitaille, Hull, 1986). Falloon, the tournament's leading pointgetter with 12, one more than Whitney, was named the tournament's most valuable player.
Falloon, Whitney, also the most sportsmanlike player, and Thurston made it a Spokane sweep of the forward spots on the all-star team. The all-star team also included Brisebois and the Soo's Brad Tiley on defence, with Potvin in goal.
Jickling sent Spokane into the lead just 52 seconds into the game, but Dave Paquet tied it at 6:34.
"That was the only time anybody even tied Spokane,” said Hamel. "We came in through the back door and can leave through the front with our heads high.”
Murray Garbutt added two first-period goals for the Chiefs, the second coming with 19 seconds left in the first period. And Klemm added the other, with 19 seconds remaining in the second period.
Kidd made 30 saves. He finished with three wins in as many starts and his 1.67 GAA tied the tournament record set by Richard Brodeur of the Cornwall Royals in 1972.
The Chiefs finished the tournament with seven players having scored at least five points. From the other three teams, only Larouche and Charbonneau, both from Chicoutimi, had as many as five points.
Spokane, in winning all four of its games, scored 27 goals and gave up only nine. Drummondville scored 15 goals, Sault Ste. Marie and Chicoutimi managed only seven each.
It was complete and total domination.
And yet there was a touch of sadness in the Spokane dressing room. That's because Woolf didn't play.
"We don't have a lot of rules on this team,” Maxwell said, "but he broke one of them.
"I can remember when I was a kid and my dad would take my hockey, my baseball, my football away from me if I didn't show respect for the rules. That meant something to me.
"He has a problem. We will work with him this summer.”
Woolf skated in the pregame warmup but was then told he wouldn't dress for what was to have been the final game of his major junior playing career.
"I felt a big part of this team,” said Woolf, who it turns out had paused for a beer or two sometime during the week, "and I am a big part of this team. We did win. I was just sorry to see it end this way.
"This is not the way I wanted it to end.”

NEXT: 1992 (Seattle Thunderbirds, Kamloops Blazers, Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds and Verdun College-Francais)

The Memorial Cup: A history . . . 1990

1990 MEMORIAL CUP
Kamloops Blazers, Oshawa Generals, Kitchener Rangers and Laval Titan
at Hamilton (Copps Coliseum)

They were already calling him The Next Great One. Already, hockey fans either liked him or despised him.
There wasn't any middle ground with Eric Lindros.
And that's just how he played the game of hockey. When he was on the ice, there wasn't any grey area.
He was like that at the 1990 Memorial Cup. And he was only 17 years of age.
This was to be his coming-out party, primarily because four of the tournament's games would be televised by The Sports Network, meaning a national audience would get its first concentrated look at Lindros.
He didn't disappoint.
Neither did this tournament which is at or near the top of the list whenever hockey fans debate which one was the greatest of all time. Why? Well, it featured four overtime games, including two that went into double overtime.
"In my mind, it ranks as No. 1,” OHL commissioner David Branch would say later. "When you put all these things together, you have the finest Memorial Cup ever.”
Lindros and his Oshawa Generals, under head coach Rick Cornacchia, were in this tournament as the OHL champions.
The Kitchener Rangers, coached by Joe McDonnell were in as the OHL runners-up, beaten by the Generals in the championship final.
That's right. There wasn't a host team. The Hamilton Steelhawks were to have filled that role. But with the Steelhawks en route to an 11-49-6 regular-season record, the decision was made to make a change.
Thus, the venue stayed the same, but it was decided that both teams that qualified for the OHL final would get Memorial Cup berths.
In the end, it was a decision no one would regret.
The Generals had acquired Lindros's rights from the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds -- they had drafted him but he refused to report -- in time for him to suit up for 25 games, during which he totaled 17 goals, 19 assists and 61 penalty minutes.
In the end, the Generals had a 42-20-4 regular-season record and, with Lindros fully ensconced in the lineup now, they were ready for the playoff run.
Team captain Iain Fraser was the club's top gun, with 40 goals and 105 points. Brent Grieve chipped in with 46 goals and 47 assists, and Jarrod Skalde had 40 goals and 52 helpers. And Mike Craig turned in 36 goals and 40 assists in only 43 games.
Grieve and Fraser, by the way, were real veterans. Both had played for the Generals in the 1987 Memorial Cup in Oshawa. Grieve had two assists in four games; Fraser got into one game.
In goal, the go-to guy all season had been Kevin Butt, who had a 3.75 GAA. Fred Brathwaite (2.91) was coming on as the season wound down.
The Generals opened postseason play by ousting the Cornwall Royals from a Leyden Division quarterfinal in six games to earn a bye to the division final.
In that final, they smoked the defending-champion Peterborough Petes in four games, setting up the final with the Rangers.
The Generals, a team that was formed in 1908, would win that series in seven games -- after trailing 3-1 -- to win the organization's 11th OHL crown. In 10 previous Memorial Cup appearances, Oshawa had three titles -- 1939, 1940 and 1944.
Lindros finished the playoffs with 18 goals and 18 assists in 17 games.
Yes, he was ready.
The Rangers were making their fourth Memorial Cup appearance and, having won it in 1982, were going for title No. 2.
They had gotten through the regular season with a 38-21-7 record, thanks in large part to the offensive talents of Gilbert Dionne, Joey St. Aubin and Jason Firth.
Dionne, younger brother of NHL star Marcel Dionne, finished with 105 points, including 48 goals; St. Aubin scored 36 goals and set up 68 others; and, Firth had 100 points, including 64 assists. Steve Rice helped out with 39 goals and 37 assists in 58 games.
In goal, the load fell on Mike Torchia, who put up a 3.58 GAA in the regular season. He played every postseason minute and finished with a 3.51 GAA.
In the playoffs, the Rangers opened in an Emms Division quarterfinal and took out the North Bay Centennials in five games to earn a bye to the division final where they ousted the Niagara Falls Thunder in five.
That, of course, sent them into the final against Oshawa.
Kitchener's hottest player going into the Memorial Cup was Shayne Stevenson, thanks to 16 goals and 20 assists in 17 playoff games. Stevenson, who suffered a broken finger in the second game of the OHL final, would have a superb Memorial Cup.
"To get (to the OHL final) and watch someone else carry around the trophy, it hurts,” Stevenson said. "Hopefully, Oshawa and us will get to the final because we'd be able to play them again and beat them.”
The Laval Titan, under head coach Pierre Creamer who was two seasons removed from being fired as head coach of the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins, were making their second straight Memorial Cup appearance.
This was a team that really didn't make a lot of regular-season noise. Laval finished at 37-30-3, good for fifth place in the 11-team QMJHL.
The Titan, without a scorer in the top 10, scored 332 goals, second only to the Trois-Rivieres Draveurs, who totaled 345 over the 70-game schedule. However, Laval gave up 274 goals during a season in which seven teams allowed fewer than 300 goals.
Denis Chalifoux, a veteran of the 1989 Memorial Cup, was Laval's leading regular-season scorer, with 109 points, including 41 goals. Martin Lapointe followed with 96 points, including 42 goals, tying the franchise record for most points in a season by a rookie. That record had originally been set by Mario Lemieux in 1981-82.
The big line featured Chalifoux and Lapointe, with Claude Boivin supplying the muscle.
All told, the Titan brought with them eight players who had played in the 1989 tournament _ Chalifoux, Eric Dubois, Patrice Brisebois, Michel Gingras, Sylvain Naud, Patrick Caron, Normand Demers and Gino Odjick. With Sandy McCarthy also on this team, the Titan didn't lack for muscle.
In goal, there wasn't any doubt about the No. 1 guy. That was Eric Raymond, who had posted a 3.57 regular-season GAA and then set a QMJHL rookie playoff record with a 2.27 GAA.
Raymond, then, took a hot hand into the tournament, as did Chalifoux, who had led the QMJHL in postseason scoring, with 32 points in 14 games.
Laval opened the playoffs with a 4-2 series victory over the fourth-place Shawinigan Cataractes and then swept the sixth-place Hull Olympiques.
The Titan met up with the first-place Victoriaville Tigres in the final. It was no contest. Laval won four straight games, outscoring Victoriaville 23-9 in the process.
The QMJHL, which hadn't had a Quebec-based team win the Memorial Cup since the Quebec Remparts in 1971, had high hopes, indeed.
Still, it was Ken Hitchcock's Kamloops Blazers -- sparked by Len Barrie, Phil Huber, Dave Chyzowski, Mike Needham and goaltender Corey Hirsch -- who rode into this tournament in the favorite's role.
The Blazers were hoping to become the fourth straight WHL team to win the Memorial Cup, following the Medicine Hat Tigers (1987, 1988) and Swift Current Broncos (1989).
Kamloops had posted the WHL's best regular-season record -- 56-16-0 -- and wasn't challenged in the postseason, winning 14 of 17 games.
The Blazers opened with two West Division best-of-seven series. First, they ousted the Spokane Chiefs in six games and then in the division final they took care of the Seattle Thunderbirds, also in six games.
In the championship final, a best-of-seven affair, Kamloops polished off the Lethbridge Hurricanes, 4-1.
The Blazers were led by Barrie, a 20-year-old centre who had been picked up from the Victoria Cougars with whom he had spent three losing seasons.
"This is the first year I've even won a playoff series,” said Barrie, who led the WHL in goals (85), assists (100) and points (185). "It seems I've always gone out in the first round against Kamloops.
"If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.”
Barrie was also the playoff scoring champion, with 14 goals and 37 points.
Kamloops could also boast of Huber (53 goals, 152 points), Needham (59 goals, 125 points) and Brian Shantz (39 goals, 114 points) up front. Trevor Sim, who had won the Memorial Cup with Swift Current in 1989, was with the Blazers and had totaled 39 goals and 67 points in 49 games.
Kamloops got a boost in midseason, too, when Chyzowski, a left winger, was returned by the NHL's New York Islanders.
In the playoffs, the Blazers regularly got a lift from a line featuring Cal McGowan, Zac Boyer and Paul Kruse, a threesome that frequently rattled the opposition with some fierce forechecking.
The best of the Kamloops defencemen were 17-year-old Darryl Sydor, 16-year-old Scott Niedermayer and Dean Malkoc.
Hirsch was the No. 1 goaltender, coming off a regular season in which he went 48-13-0 with a 3.82 GAA. Hirsch played every minute of every playoff game, going 14-3 with a 3.45 GAA.
Things didn't go at all as planned for the Blazers, however, and it would be a week they'd rather forget. You might call it a case of close, but no cigars.
The Blazers played on the tournament's first two days -- losing 8-7 in overtime to Kitchener before 7,003 fans on May 5 and then dropping a 7-6 overtime decision to Oshawa in front of 7,465 fans on May 6.
"You have to give Kitchener and Oshawa a lot of credit, but we're not playing well collectively,” Hitchcock said.
In the opener, the Rangers got the winner from Stevenson, who scored his second goal of the game at 7:41 of overtime.
That came after St. Aubin tied it on a power play at 15:41 of the third period.
Kitchener actually trailed 6-4 going into the third period.
Mark Montanari, Rice, John Uniac, Firth and Rival Fullum also scored for Kitchener. Chyzowski and Sydor, with two each, Kruse, McGowan and Needham replied for Kamloops, which outshot the Rangers 45-37.
Also on May 5, Oshawa downed Laval 6-2 before 8,066 fans.
The Generals scored three goals in the game's first nine minutes, counted five in all in the first period and never looked back.
Cory Banika, with two, Fraser, Grieve, Paul O'Hagan and Skalde had Oshawa's goals, with Lindros earning one assist. Chalifoux and Naud finding the range for the Titan.
Oshawa went to 2-0 and the Blazers well to 0-2 the next day as Fraser netted the winner at 3:55 of the extra period. The Blazers, 7-6 losers in this one, outshot the Generals 50-21.
Craig struck for three first-period goals for the Generals, who gave up the first goal and then scored five in a row. It was the second straight game in which Oshawa put five on the board in the opening 20 minutes.
Skalde, Scott Luik and Grieve also scored for the Generals. Lindros set up three goals.
The Blazers, who trailed 6-2 going into the third period and 6-3 with 4:30 to play, tied it on third-period goals by Barrie (3:32), Niedermayer (15:37), Sydor (17:15) and Chyzowski (19:30).
Chyzowski finished with two goals, giving him four in two games. Barrie also scored twice.
And it seemed there was more to this game than met the eye.
"I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Len Barrie in public,” Cornacchia said. "He insulted us and said we had no character.”
"Things got a little emotional,” Barrie said, "and there was a lot of yapping going on. We totally outplayed them and should have won this hockey game. A team that gives up a four-goal lead doesn't have any character anyway.
"We're not out of this thing yet.”
On May 9, Kitchener downed Laval 5-3 to improve to 2-0 and drop the Titan to 0-2. Attendance was 5,249.
Montanari, who had opened the season with the American Hockey League's Maine Mariners, broke a 3-3 tie at 2:08 of the first period and Firth wrapped it up with an empty-net goal at 19:49.
Dionne, Rice and Stevenson also scored for Kitchener, as the Rangers continued to get production from their big guns.
Gingras, with two, and Carl Boudreau scored for Laval, which would now meet Kamloops to decide one semifinal berth.
The other berth would be decided when Oshawa met Kitchener -- the winner moved into the final, the loser got a spot in the semifinal.
But first things first.
On May 9, the unthinkable happened -- Laval dumped Kamloops 4-2 which meant the Blazers, the top-ranked team in the CHL just a few days earlier, were the first team eliminated. Attendance was 4,075.
"Give (Laval) full marks,” Hitchcock said. "They did the best job that anyone did here checking us.”
Laval scored twice late in the second period and then added two more in the third -- Caron got the winner six minutes into the period and Chalifoux added an empty-netter -- as it earned a spot in the semifinal game.
The Titan ended a five-game losing streak by QMJHL teams against OHL and WHL opposition at the tournament.
Sim gave Kamloops a 1-0 lead on a late first-period power play.
The Titan took the lead late in the second period, scoring two power-play goals five seconds apart in the last minute. Boivin struck with a two-man advantage at 19:49 and Lapointe sent Laval out front at 19:54.
Kruse forged a tie five minutes into the third period, setting the stage for Caron and Chalifoux to round out the scoring.
"They're not a skilled team but they work hard,” said Hirsch, who played by far his best game of the tournament. "I didn't play well at all in the first two games and that may become the most memorable thing in my life.”
Kamloops finished up 0-3, the first WHL team to go winless at the Memorial Cup since the Edmonton Oil Kings went 0-2 in the first tournament, in 1972.
Oshawa moved into the final on May 10, but it wasn't easy. In fact, it took double overtime.
Dale Craigwell finally ended it, scoring at 4:16 of the second extra period to give the Generals a 5-4 victory over Kitchener. It was Oshawa's fourth straight victory over the Rangers.
Attendance was 11,134, the second-largest crowd to watch a Memorial Cup round-robin or preliminary game, behind only the 12,699 who were in the Montreal Forum on May 11, 1973 to watch Quebec beat the Medicine Hat Tigers 7-3.
Craigwell won it with a 15-foot wrist shot that beat Torchia under the right arm.
Banika, Luik, Craig and Fraser also scored for the Generals, with Lindros setting up two goals. Firth, Stevenson, Dionne and Rice countered for the Rangers, who were outshot 53-44, including 20-15 in overtime.
By now, everyone was waiting for Lindros to score his first goal. Still, he had only gotten better as the tournament progressed.
"I'm kind of a slow starter,” he explained. "But I'm warming up and the best is yet to come.
"It seems that the further we get into this tournament, the better I'm playing.”
The Rangers now had to meet Laval in the semifinal game.
"We have to forget about this one and focus on Laval,” Rice said. "It's not like we're out of the tournament.”
"I would love it to be an all-Ontario final,” Cornacchia said. "I hope to see them on Sunday.”
Cornacchia got his wish when the Rangers beat Laval 5-4 on May 12 in front of 10,188 fans.
That set up an all-OHL final, the second straight season in which two teams from the same league would meet in the final. A year earlier, the WHL's Swift Current Broncos and Saskatoon Blades had met in the final. The Broncos won 4-3 in overtime in Saskatoon.
In the semifinal, Laval led 3-2 after one period and Kitchener took a 4-3 lead into the third period.
Dionne stretched that to 5-3 earlier in the third period. Laval cut it to 5-4 when Boivin scored on a power play at 8:32 but the Titan weren't able to tie it.
Montanari, with two, St. Aubin and Rice also scored for the Rangers. Laval got two goals from Boivin, with Naud and Dubois adding the others.
All of which set up the final. And what a game it was. For the second consecutive season, the Memorial Cup championship was decided in overtime.
Oshawa won it all when Bill Armstrong scored at 2:05 of the second overtime period to give the Generals a 4-3 victory in front of 17,383 fans.
That was the largest crowd ever to watch a Memorial Cup game. The previous record (13,460) was set on May 14, 1977 for the final game of the 1977 tournament -- New Westminster Bruins 6, Ottawa 67's 5 -- in Vancouver's Pacific Coliseum.
The 1990 tournament totaled 70,563 spectators, second only to the 1989 event in Saskatoon, which drew 77,256 fans. However, the Saskatoon tournament featured nine games (average: 8,588) to Hamilton's eight (average: 8,820).
Armstrong, a 6-foot-5 defenceman, drifted a shot from the left point that made its way through traffic and beat Torchia over the left shoulder.
It was Oshawa's first Memorial Cup championship since 1944.
This final, just like the one a year earlier, was one for the ages.
The Generals were without Craig, who was sidelined with an ankle injury. And things looked bleak when Butt went down with an ankle problem in the second period.
But that's when Brathwaite came on and stole the show, allowing just one goal in more than 50 minutes of action. He made 23 saves in the biggest game of his life.
"I was really nervous to start off with,” Brathwaite said. "I haven't seen that many people in a long time. I thought I might blow it, but I said to myself, "I can't screw up.’ ”
He didn't.
Oshawa got two goals from Grieve, who stepped in for Craig on the line with Lindros and Fraser, with Banika adding the other. Lindros set up three goals, giving him nine assists (and no goals) in the tournament.
Dionne, St. Aubin and defenceman Jason York scored power-play goals for the Rangers, who were outshot 54-38, including 20-12 in overtime.
(Fraser was named the tournament's most valuable player, with Firth winning the sportsmanship award and Torchia being named the top goaltender. The all-star team comprised Torchia, O'Hagan and Kitchener's Corey Keenan on defence, with Lindros, Fraser and Rice up front.)
York and Banika exchanged first-period goals, with St. Aubin and Grieve doing the same in the second. Oshawa took its first lead when Grieve scored again, this one at 3:47 of the third. Dionne forced overtime when he scored just 50 seconds later.
On St. Aubin's goal, the puck struck Butt on the right ankle and deflected into the net. More importantly, Butt was injured and unable to continue.
Brathwaite, who had joined the Generals midway in the season, stepped off the bench and into Memorial Cup history.
Grieve remembered back to 1987.
"In '87, I remember our team coming out flat and (Medicine Hat) got a couple of quick goals,” Grieve said. "When (Medicine Hat) won, that was one of the worst feelings I've ever had. Winning it feels so much better.”
"We went through a lot of adversity,” Fraser said, "and it's the greatest feel bringing the Memorial Cup back to Oshawa.”
As well as going through the heralded arrival of Lindros, the Generals had suffered through the deaths of two people -- receptionist Marg Armstrong and chief scout Jim Cherry -- during the season.
"It would have been easy to fold, but we have a character group of players,” said Cornacchia.
Game's end also signaled the beginning of one of the Memorial Cup's better stories.
As soon as Armstrong scored the winning goal, Brathwaite raced the length of the ice, fell to his knees and seemed to embrace Torchia.
"I felt bad for him and I thought he was awesome,” Brathwaite was quoted as saying later. "I knew we would have all sorts of time to party and I didn't know when I would see him again.”
Torchia recounted: "He just said, ‘Keep your head up, you had a great series.' I can't remember saying anything.
"It was like someone had just ripped my heart right out of my chest. I didn't know what to say.”
Some time later, Cornacchia may have set the record straight with Toronto Star hockey columnist Bob McKenzie.
"I hate to burst the bubble,” Cornacchia told McKenzie, "but Freddie's primary reason for going down to that end of the ice was to get the game puck.
"If you watch the video on that, he's down on his knees, with one arm wrapped around Torchia and the other arm moving out to get the puck, which was right beside Torchia.
"I'm not saying Freddie didn't want to give Torchia a pat on the back, because he did, but I have to be honest -- Freddie wanted the puck.
"That's Freddie. Larcenous Freddie.”
Cornacchia also remembered the exact moment when he turned to Brathwaite on the bench.
"I looked down the bench and told Freddie to get ready,” Cornacchia recalled. "He said, ‘Sure, Coach,' and started yawning like mad as he put his mask on. I looked at (assistant coach) Larry (Marson) and said, ‘Is he ready?' Larry said, ‘He's ready, don't worry. That's Freddie.’ ”
The final was the tournament's fourth overtime game, something that didn't go unnoticed.
"All I could think about,” Cornacchia said, "was that in that first overtime period, we were defending the goal at which every overtime goal in the tournament had been scored. I was worried.”
He admitted to feeling better once the Generals got to the second extra period.
"I was feeling a lot better because at least we were at the right end of the ice to score on that same goal,” he explained.
The game-winner came with all the suddenness of a bullet.
Armstrong intercepted a clearing pass and drifted the puck towards the Kitchener net. Just like that, it was over.
"I think every guy in this dressing room had dreamt about scoring the winning goal in the Memorial Cup final,” Armstrong said. "Sure I had dreamt about it. But, realistically, I never thought it would be me who scored.”
Armstrong had scored just two regular-season goals.

NEXT: 1991 (Spokane Chiefs, Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, Drummondville Voltigeurs and Chicoutimi Sagueneens)

Big Benn gets deal

When Benn Olson began his WHL career with the Kamloops Blazers, he was pretty much an enforcer. Period. But he was dealt to the Seattle Thunderbirds early in the 2005-06 season and, with some hard work and some help from a coaching staff that included former WHL defenceman Jim McGaggart, Olson turned himself into a serviceable defender. He still played tough — he led the WHL in penalty minutes last season — and he still fought. But he improved to the point where he played a regular shift and killed penalties; in other words, he wasn’t a liability. On Friday, Olson, 21, signed his first professional contract, with the AHL’s Albany River Rats.

The Memorial Cup: A history . . . 1989

1989 MEMORIAL CUP
Swift Current Broncos, Saskatoon Blades, Peterborough Petes and Laval Titan
at Saskatoon (Saskatchewan Place)

This Memorial Cup tournament should have belonged to the Saskatoon Blades.
That's because the Blades are the only original member of the Western Hockey League to play every season since the first one, 1966-67.
The Blades had put together some great teams over the years but always seemed to run into another team that was just a little bit better.
Now, with a new rink -- the 7,752-seat Saskatchewan Place -- the Blades found themselves in the Memorial Cup, albeit as the host team.
Still, they were in the tournament. And that's all that mattered to the hockey-mad city of Saskatoon.
But the Swift Current Broncos were also in this tournament. They were there as the WHL champions, the conclusion to a most improbable run.
And the Broncos had more than the eyes of a city upon them. A whole nation was watching them; indeed, it was an entire teary-eyed nation.
If ever there was a little team that could in a little city that wanted to, it was the Swift Current Broncos.
John Rittinger, the team's governor, had tried for years to land a team for the city of 16,000 residents that is located in the southwest part of Saskatchewan.
Every time a team became available, or there was a whisper that one might be up for grabs, Rittinger was there.
It was an empty trail of broken dreams until Rittinger and his community group were able to purchase the Lethbridge Broncos after the 1985-86 season.
But, as it turned out, the chase was only a tiny portion of the story.
The remainder began on the night of Dec. 30, 1986, as the Broncos were en route to Regina for a game with the Pats.
A wet snow resulted in icy conditions and the Broncos bus swerved off the Trans-Canada Highway and crashed through a ditch a short distance from home.
Four players – Trent Kresse, Scott Kruger, Chris Mantyka and Brent Ruff -- were killed.
At the time, John Foster, the Broncos' publicity director, said: "This team will band together and win it for those guys who died. The (survivors) were absolutely professional under stress. If the people of Swift Current could have seen them, they would have been proud.”
Foster was on the bus that night, so he knew of what he spoke. Time would prove him correct, too.
There was more to this tragic tale, however, and in the end it was all enough to have observers wondering if this organization was operating under a permanent black cloud.
Herman Kruger, 67, suffered a fatal heart attack as he entered the church for his great-grandson's funeral.
And later the same day, at a lunch following funeral services, Regina head coach Doug Sauter and Pats trainer Stan Szumlak came to the rescue of Keith Giles, a member of the Prince Albert executive who was choking on some food.
The Broncos learned then that life does go on. And it did. For the most part, the organization was able to put the accident behind itself -- not forgotten, just out of mind.
As Graham James, the team's general manager and head coach, said in the early winter of 1989: "It's not really mentioned now. If guys start whining or feeling sorry for themselves, we remind them of the history of this franchise. That keeps things in perspective.''
But now it was the spring of 1989 and the Broncos -- and the accident -- were front and centre.
Suddenly, everyone was interested in the Broncos. Everyone wanted to know how it was that the organization could recover as quickly as it did.
"I think after the bus accident . . . that galvanized the spirit of the community,” James said. "I think that was a catalyst. Since then we've had to provide a product that's been worthy of fans coming, but I think that incident certainly rallied the community.”
The Broncos opened the 1988-89 season by winning their first 12 games. A team of destiny? People were already starting to wonder.
When the Christmas break arrived the Broncos were riding a 10-game winning streak and had a 28-5-0 record.
When the regular season was done, the Broncos, a team that played in the smallest of any CHL city, a team that played in the CHL's smallest rink (the Centennial Civic Centre seated 2,275 and had standing room for 800), had the CHL's best record -- 55-16-1. By going 33-2-1 at home, they set a WHL record for most home victories in a season.
Still, the best was yet to come.
On April 30, the Broncos completed an amazing run through the WHL playoffs by beating the Winter Hawks 4-1 in Portland. That gave the Broncos a sweep of the best-of-seven WHL championship final.
Earlier, the Broncos had also swept the Moose Jaw Warriors and Saskatoon.
Yes, Swift Current went through the WHL playoffs without losing a game, something no other WHL team had ever done. The Broncos put together a 12-0 run and they carried that momentum into the Memorial Cup tournament.
"This is a great accomplishment for our franchise,” James said. "But I don't want the Memorial Cup to decide if we had a great year.”
Swift Current centre Tim Tisdale added: "We have the team to do it this year. If we can't get up for four games, we don't belong there. I'll be disappointed if we don't win the Memorial Cup.”
Believe one thing -- this team was Graham James.
Raised in Winnipeg, James had been exposed to the flowing style of hockey played by the World Hockey Association's Winnipeg Jets, in particular the style played by Ulf Nilsson, Anders Hedberg and Bobby Hull.
The Broncos were full of players who could pass, skate and shoot. And while not a physical team, the Broncos were intimidating because the power play simply could not be stopped.
Ask the Warriors who one night were beaten by the Broncos to the tune of 11-3, surrendering a WHL record 10 power-play goals in the process.
With Dan Lambert, Bob Wilkie and Darren Kruger rotating on the points, and with virtually any combination of Tisdale, Peter Soberlak, Sheldon Kennedy, Brian Sakic, Peter Kasowski and Kimbi Daniels seeing time up front, the Broncos' power play was awesome before awesome became cool.
Swift Current's power-play unit scored 180 goals that season, breaking the WHL's single-season record by 15 goals. With the man advantage, the Broncos scored 180 goals in 526 chances, an incredible success rate of 34.2 per cent.
Five players scored 100 points or more -- Tisdale (139), Kasowski (131), Kennedy (106), Lambert (102) and Sakic (100). Darren Kruger finished with 97, and set a WHL record with 63 power-play assists.
Tisdale added 32 points in 12 playoff games, while Lambert had 28 points, including 19 assists.
The goaltender was Trevor Kruger, Darren's twin brother. Their younger brother, Scott, was one of the victim's of that bus accident.
And there was James, a man who loved the game of hockey, especially when it's played properly.
Despite public perception which was fueled by the media, James never really campaigned against violence in hockey. It's just that when asked about it, he always provided an answer. That answer was always thought-provoking.
"I'm not comfortable doing this,” he said. "But I think we have a choice. Do we say what we believe or do we keep quiet so everyone in the league likes us? The easiest thing to do is remain neutral, but I don't think that's right.”
He would oftentimes compare hockey to another sport.
"What if golf were like hockey?” he would wonder out loud. "Say Jack Nicklaus had a 20-foot birdie putt and Ben Crenshaw thought, ‘I'm 10 shots behind him, I'm going to get him.' Would he cross-check Nicklaus in the back of the head with his putter?”
Through all of this, James wasn't the most popular person in WHL circles, especially since his Broncos employed Mark McFarlane, a right-winger who totalled 364 penalty minutes.
"I don't want to give the impression we're perfect,” James said. "We get that all the time -- what about McFarlane? But I think we're sending a message saying you can't stick guys. If I see our guys using sticks, I'll talk to them on the bench. If it continues, we'll deal with it at the team level. We've sat guys out for stick infractions. The bottom line is this game wasn't meant to hurt people.”
The toughest part of the Broncos may well have been the players' bench.
"Actually, we're a lot like the Oakland A's in the mid-'70s,” James said. "Guys come to the bench screaming and bitching at each other, but off the ice they get along great.
"We've just got a lot of high-strung people during the game.”
The Blades, meanwhile, were a disappointed bunch.
Under head coach Marcel Comeau they had put together a 42-28-2 record and were never really given the respect they felt they were due.
They had scored 366 goals. But the Broncos had scored more (447). The Blades had allowed 335 goals. The Broncos had allowed fewer (319).
The Blades had one player with 100 points (Kory Kocur, 102); the Broncos had five.
The one area in which the Blades had the edge was in 20-goal scorers. They had 10 of them; the Broncos only had nine.
Yes, the victories were small, indeed.
This was a gritty Saskatoon team that featured Scott Scissons, with 86 points, and three players with 79 points -- defenceman Collin Bauer and forwards Tracey Katelnikoff and Jason Christie.
Dean Kuntz saw the majority of action in goal during the regular season but, by the time the Memorial Cup arrived, Mike Greenlay was the starter.
The Blades opened the postseason with such high hopes, and they only got higher with a four-game sweep of the Lethbridge Hurricanes.
But before they knew it the Blades had been brushed aside by the Broncos, after which the seemingly interminable wait for the Memorial Cup to start was all that was left.
"We'll take a run at it just like the other teams will,” Comeau said. "We're not here for jokes and giggles.”
This time around, the Laval Titan would represent the QMJHL, a league that hadn't had a Quebec-based team win it all since the 1971 Quebec Remparts of Guy Lafleur.
Laval was coached by former NHLer Paulin Bordeleau, who had ended his North American playing career in 1976 and had since played for France at the 1988 Olympic Winter Games in Calgary.
Bordeleau ended his playing career after his Olympic experience and returned to Canada in hopes of starting a coaching career.
Laval's leader offensively was right-winger Donald Audette, who totaled 161 points, including 76 goals, in the regular season and added 17 goals in 17 playoff games.
Two other Laval players broke the 100-point barrier -- Denis Chalifoux (137) and Claude Lapointe (104). Audette was third in the scoring race, Chalifoux was tied for 10th.
One of the keys to Laval's chances was centre Neil Carnes, a native of Farmington Hills, Mich. A knee injury limited him to 31 regular-season games, but he rejoined the team in the playoffs and had recorded 18 points in 10 games.
The key on defence was Patrice Brisebois, while goaltender Ghislain Lefebvre was coming of a regular season in which he posted a 3.90 GAA. When Lefebvre fell victim to postseason inconsistency on three occasions, backup Boris Rousson took over.
The Titan had the QMJHL's second-best regular-season record -- their 43-26-1 record just marginally below the 43-25-2 posted by the Trois-Rivieres Draveurs.
Laval opened the postseason by sweeping the Granby Bisons from a best-of-seven quarterfinal series and followed up with a 4-2 series victory over the Shawinigan Cataractes.
The championship final went seven games before the Titan were able to dispose of the Victoriaville Tigres. Laval won the final game 3-1.
"We were the best team in the league,” Bordeleau said. "We had a few lapses when we lost our discipline, but we deserve to represent Quebec in the Memorial Cup.”
The Peterborough Petes, this time coached by Dick Todd, would represent the OHL. It was the fourth time the Petes had appeared in the tournament since the round-robin format began in 1973.
The Petes boasted of the OHL's top goaltending tandem for the second straight season, John Tanner (3.34 GAA) and Todd Bojcun (3.59).
A year earlier, Tanner and Bojcun had carried the Petes into the OHL final, where they were swept by the Windsor Spitfires. This time, the Petes got to the final and took out the Niagara Falls Thunder in six games, winning the last game 8-2.
Earlier in the playoffs, the Petes had trailed the Belleville Bulls and Cornwall Royals.
The Bulls won the opener of their series before the Petes won the next four games. Cornwall won the first two games, only to have the Petes win the next four.
The leader, on the ice and off, was centre Mike Ricci. He was 10th in the regular-season scoring race with 106 points, including 54 goals. At 17 years of age, he wouldn't be eligible for the NHL draft until the summer of 1990.
The Petes only had two other players with more than 20 goals -- right-winger Ross Wilson had 48 (he totalled 89 points) and left-winger Andy MacVicar, who had 25 goals.
The Petes' roster also included the OHL's toughest player. Right-winger Tie Domi had 14 goals, 30 points and 175 penalty minutes.
Saskatoon fans anxiously awaited the first time Domi and Blades centre Kevin Kaminski (68 points, 199 penalty minutes) came face-to-face in a corner.
The Broncos opened the tournament on the afternoon of May 6, beating the Petes 6-4.
Kennedy, with two, Tisdale, Daniels, Sakic and Kevin Knopp scored for the Broncos, who led 3-2 after one period, trailed 4-3 after the second and won it with three third-period goals.
Domi, with two, Mark Myles and Jamey Hicks replied for the Petes, who trailed 3-2 after one period and led 4-3 after two but gave up three goals in the third.
That night, the Blades swung into action with a 5-3 victory over Laval before 8,943 fans.
Laval tied this one 3-3 at 6:22 of the third period, only to have the Blades win it with goals at 10:34 and 15:22.
The hero in Saskatoon's first-ever Memorial Cup game was Brian Gerrits, who had been acquired from the Portland Winter Hawks in 1987-88. He scored twice, including the game-winner.
Scissons, Katelnikoff and Kocur also scored for Saskatoon. Brisebois, Audette and Michel Gingras counted for Laval.
The following day, May 7, the Blades and Petes evened their records at 1-1 as Peterborough beat Saskatoon 3-2.
The Petes built up a 3-1 lead and took a 3-2 lead into what would be a scoreless third period.
Wilson, with two, and MacVicar scored for Peterborough. Defenceman Ken Sutton and centre Jason Smart replied for the Blades.
The star was Bojcun, who kept the Blades off the board for the game's final 24 minutes.
"Our goalies got us through the playoffs,” Wilson said. "Hopefully, they'll get us through the Memorial Cup.”
And, yes, Domi and Kaminski did go fist-to-fist. The spirited bout was scored a draw by observers; it was also the only scrap of the first four games.
After the game, it was revealed that Ricci, who hadn't been terribly effective in the first two games, had chicken pox. He would try to play through it.
That night, Swift Current guaranteed itself a playoff spot by edging Laval 6-5 in front of 8,733 fans.
This time the Broncos won it with two goals six seconds apart in the third period, Wilkie scoring at 15:14 to break a 5-5 tie and Daniels winning it at 15:20 with his second goal of the game.
Lambert also had two goals for the winners, with Tisdale getting the other. Laval, which lost defenceman Eric Dubois with a separated shoulder, got two goals from Carnes and singles from Lapointe, Brisebois and Patrick Caron.
"I honestly didn't think we'd win this game,” Lambert said. Then, in reference to the club's habit of slumbering through the second period, he added: "I thought we'd done this one too many times.”
James said: "Sometimes we forget about the work ethic. But if we don't work, we're like any other team. We don't win.”
The QMJHL had now lost 13 straight games to OHL and WHL teams, a streak that began after the Hull Olympiques beat the Kamloops Blazers 9-3 in Portland on May 16, 1986.
"I just told them that the best team in Canada is the team that wins the Memorial Cup,” Bordeleau said after his team fell to 0-2. "And nobody has won the Memorial Cup yet.”
Prior to the two late goals, the Broncos were struggling to beat Lefebvre, who faced 40 shots in the Laval goal.
"That's as depressed as our bench has been for a long time,” James said. "I thought (Lefebvre) was on such a roll we were never going to beat him. But we're getting good play out of some of our guys and those individual efforts made the difference.”
The QMJHL's winless streak ended on May 9 when Laval beat Peterborough 3-1 before 8,517 fans.
"People said we hadn't won in so long,” Bordeleau said. "I said I'd never lost a game in the Memorial Cup and we'll go from there.”
By the time the game was five minutes old, Laval led 2-0 on goals by Caron and Audette. Carnes got Laval's other goal, with Hicks scoring for the Petes.
"They were a desperate team and we didn't show we were determined to put them away,” Todd stated.
By now, not only did the Petes have Ricci with chicken pox, but a flu bug was making its way through the dressing room.
Saskatoon made believers of everyone on May 10 by earning a berth in the tournament final with a thrilling 5-4 victory over the Broncos in front of a wild crowd of 8,763 fans.
That left the Blades and Broncos with 2-1 records; the Blades got the nod by virtue of their victory over Swift Current.
"(The Saskatoon StarPhoenix) said we were the laughing stock of the tournament,” Comeau said. "That was a motivational tool. He's not on our payroll but that writer certainly helped us out.”
Greenlay was spectacular for the Blades. He had made three starts against the Broncos in the WHL's East Division final and he got the hook in each one of them.
But on this night he stopped 39 shots, including 17 in the third period.
"I was playing with confidence and when you're playing with confidence, the puck just seems to hit you,” Greenlay said. "I'm sick and tired of hearing about that other series. I felt I'd let everybody down. I had three weeks to get ready for this series and get my confidence back. That's what I needed.”
Swift Current, which had a 14-game postseason winning streak snapped, led 3-1 after the first period, on goals by Wilkie, Kasowski and Sakic. With the Broncos ahead 3-0, Dean Holoien scored a late power-play goal for the Blades.
In the second period, Sutton banged in two goals and Smart added a single to put the Blades out front 4-3.
Kennedy tied it at 15:12 of the second period on a Swift Current power play. But Saskatoon's Darin Bader scored what proved to be the winner at 17:01, setting up a scoreless third period.
"(Greenlay) had the answer for everything they threw at him,” Comeau said. "He kept a very impressive offensive team down to a workable number of goals for us.”
The Broncos were left shaking their heads.
"He wasn't very good in the other series,” Lambert said. "Tonight, he showed us what he could do.”
James agreed.
"Certainly, the timing of this could be a little better,” James said. "But I don't want to get too excited over this. We'd beaten them four times in a row, their goalie plays well and we lose by a goal.
"They played 10 or 12 minutes and held on to win the hockey game. We should have buried them in the first period. I don't see any reason to hang our heads.”
That left it up to Laval and Peterborough to decide who would meet Swift Current in the semifinal game.
The Petes and Titan decided that on May 11, with Peterborough riding a 37-save effort by Bojcun to a 5-4 victory before 7,060 fans.
"We played a chippy game,” said Ricci, who scored his first two goals, both of them in the first period. "We have a big team and we had to come out tough and show them we were here to play.”
Todd noticed the difference in his star centre.
"It was obvious from the start that Mike Ricci had another step in his game,” Todd said. "That's a must for our team to be successful.”
Chalifoux opened the scoring with what would be his only goal of the tournament. And the Petes roared back with three straight goals -- two from Ricci and the other from Geoff Ingram.
The Titan came back to fire 29 shots at Bojcun over the final two periods, but they trailed 5-2 going into the third period.
Hicks and Jamie Pegg added second-period goals for the Petes, with Lapointe counting for Laval.
The Titan got third-period goals from Audette and Carnes but they couldn't get the equalizer.
"I wasn't trying to think about what was happening around me,” Bojcun said. "I just tried to stay calm and show my team I was relaxed.”
Bojcun was the game's third star. In his other two starts, he had been selected first star.
The game also helped set a Memorial Cup attendance record. The six-game total was 59,800, breaking the record of 57,256 set in Portland in 1986. By tournament's end, the attendance total would be 77,296.
The Broncos set up an all-Saskatchewan final on May 12 by whipping the Petes 6-2 in front of 8,378 fans.
"We're just like Nolan Ryan going to the mound with just his changeup,” James said. "We didn't have our best stuff.
"We were fighting the puck all night, which is the only thing this team will fight by the way. We were faulty in all areas. We just managed to persevere and win.”
Power-play goals by Tisdale and Trevor Sim gave the Broncos a 2-0 lead after a first period in which the Petes were outshot 9-2.
Sim, who had been acquired from Regina in a midseason trade, upped it to 3-0 early in the second period before Wilson got Peterborough on the board while skating with a two-man advantage.
Blake Knox pushed Swift Current's edge to 4-1 six minutes into the third period before Ricci scored, again with the Petes holding a two-man edge. The Petes couldn't get closer despite firing 38 shots at Kruger over the last two periods, and Tisdale and Daniels closed out the scoring.
"Their goaltender had a big night,” Todd said of Kruger, who finished with 38 saves. "When you're not blessed with an abundance of natural goal scorers, you run into nights like this.”
Todd also pointed a finger at referee Dean Forbes, pointing out that the Petes took six of the eight minor penalties handed out in the first period.
James, though, wasn't buying it.
"I don't think teams have anyone to blame but themselves for the penalties they take,” he said.
And then he began preparations for the final game.
"I feel cheated we haven't been playing our best,” James said. "We're in the national spotlight and the fans haven't seen the real Swift Current Broncos. I feel badly about that.
"But if you would have come up to me at the start of the season and said, ‘You'll be in the Memorial Cup final', I would have been delighted.
"By hook or by crook, we've got a shot at it tomorrow.”
This would be the very first all-WHL final. The only other time two teams from the same league had met in the final was 1984 when the Ottawa 67's beat the host Kitchener Rangers 7-2 in an all-OHL final.
Tears were shed and that bus crash of Dec. 30, 1986 was remembered on May 14 when the Broncos won the Memorial Cup, beating the Blades 4-3 on Tisdale's goal at 3:25 of the first sudden-death overtime period.
"I was just standing there and it hit my stick,” Tisdale said of the biggest goal in Broncos history. "I still don't know how it went in.”
It was a centring pass by Darren Kruger that Tisdale tipped in to win it all.
The game was played in front of 9,078 fans in Saskatchewan Place along with a national television audience.
It was a game for all time.
"It was a great game for us," James said. "We generated a lot of chances against a very good team in their own building.
"For the people who tuned in, they got a helluva show.”
That they did.
Kennedy gave the Broncos a 1-0 lead late in the first period, and Knox upped it to 2-0 early in the second period when only Greenlay was keeping the Blades in this one.
But there has never been any quit in the Blades organization and Saskatoon ended up taking a 3-2 lead into the third period.
Scissons started the comeback at 12:35 of the second period. Katelnikoff tied it with a shorthanded goal at 17:30. Kocur put the Blades out front at 19:43.
"For five minutes we just lost our minds and started giving the puck away,” James said.
The Broncos, despite outshooting the Blades 23-12, trailed 3-2 going into the third period.
"We felt we outplayed them,” Tisdale said, "but we were trailing.”
The Broncos, the fifth team in seven years to win the semifinal game and then beat the first-place team in the final, tied it when Daniels scored at 5:59 of the third period, after which the teams resorted to firewagon hockey.
When the game ended, the Broncos owned a 34-24 edge in shots on goal. But in overtime Saskatoon outshot Swift Current 5-1.
Trevor Kruger made five straight saves in overtime before Tisdale scored.
"I can't think of a thing we could have done differently,” Comeau said. "We gave it a maximum effort but we came up one shot short.
"Life goes on. I'm not sure if some of our players believe that right now, but we couldn't have given any more . . . In the final analysis, the best team won.”
The Broncos ended up 16-1 in the postseason. Combining regular-season and playoff records shows them at 71-17-1.
And when it was over, the accident was remembered.
"When we came back in here I just sat in my stall and thought things over,” said Lambert, the tournament's most valuable player. "You see it on TV and you dream about it, but you never expect something like this to happen.
"Today, it happened for me.”
(Greenlay was selected top goaltender, and Hicks was named most gentlemanly player. The all-star team featured Greenlay, Lambert, Sutton, Tisdale, Kennedy and Carnes.)
James said the accident "is something we downplay.”
"But,” he added, “it meant something to the players who were there and the people involved with the franchise. It's hard to believe we could come back . . . I think it's a great tribute to the guys (Kresse, Scott Kruger, Mantyka and Ruff) and we can let them rest in peace.
"With everyone cheering, it was hard to keep control of your emotions . . . I guess reflection time will come when we're on the bus to Swift.”
Perhaps the headline in the Regina Leader-Post said it best -- Broncos: A Memorial victory.

NEXT: 1990 (Kamloops Blazers, Oshawa Generals, Kitchener Rangers and Laval Titan)