Day 10 . . . it has started!

DAY 10 AT THE 2010 MASTERCARD MEMORIAL CUP . . .

You don’t think the city of Brandon has waited a long, long time for this?
Consider that Brandon is the only city in the world to have had teams play for the Stanley Cup, Allan Cup and Memorial Cup and to never have won even once.
In 1904, the Brandon Wheat Cities challenged Ottawa, which held the Stanley Cup. Brandon had won the Manitoba and Northwestern Hockey Association. The teams met in Ottawa, March 9-11, with the home side winning, 6-3 and 9-3.
In 1921, the Brandon Wheat Cities reached the Allan Cup final — the Allan Cup goes to Canada’s senior men’s champion — and met the U of Toronto in Winnipeg in a two-game, total-goal series. Brandon won 2-0 and then was beaten 8-1, to lose the series 8-3.
This will be the Wheat Kings’ third time in the Memorial Cup final.
In 1949, the Wheat Kings and Montreal Royals played a best-of-seven final for the Memorial Cup that actually went eight games because the third game ended in a 3-3 draw. They played five games in Brandon (Games 2, 3, 5, 6 and 7), with the Wheat Kings going 3-1-1 at home. Montreal won all three games played in Winnipeg, including a 6-4 victory in the eighth and final game.
In 1979, the Wheat Kings, coached by Dunc McCallum, were in a three-team round-robin, along with Gary Green’s Peterbrough Petes and Michel Bergeron’s Trois-Rivieres Draveurs. In the final, the Petes scored a 2-1 OT victory over the Wheat Kings. (Kelly McCrimmon, today the Wheat Kings’ owner, GM and head coach, was a player on the 1978-79 Wheat Kings, but sat out the Memorial Cup with a broken arm.)
Since then, Brandon reached the Memorial Cup in 1995 and 1996 but wasn’t able to get to the final.
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The Windsor Spitfires go into today’s final having won 11 straight games. They fell behind the Kitchener Rangers 0-3 in an OHL semifinal before roaring back to win four straight games. Windsor then swept the Barrie Colts and won its first three games here — 9-3 over Brandon, 6-2 over Calgary and 5-4 in OT over the Moncton Wildcats.
Going back to last year’s tournament, the Spitfires have won seven straight Memorial Cup games. That is the second-longest winning streak in tournament history, behind only the 12 games won by the Kamloops Blazers over the 1992, 1994 and 1995 events.
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This is Windsor’s third trip to a Memorial Cup final.
The Spitfires won it all a year ago in Rimouski, Que., beating the Kelowna Rockets 4-1 in the final.
In 1988, as the Windsor Compuware Spitfires, they lost 7-6 to the Barry Melrose-coached Medicine Hat Tigers in the final in Quebec City.
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The Kelowna Rockets and Vancouver Giants, the last two WHL teams in the Memorial Cup as host teams, won it. The Rockets skated to victory at home in 2004 and the Giants replicated that in 2007.
Each of the last seven times that the Memorial Cup has been played in a WHL city, a WHL team has won. That goes back to 1986 when the OHL’s Guelph Platers won in Portland in 1986.
Windsor is looking to become the first team to successfully defend its championship since the 1995 Kamloops Blazers won the championship . . . in Kamloops.
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The Spitfires are 3-0 here but haven’t played since Tuesday. They opened the tournament on May 14 with a 9-3 victory over the Wheat Kings.
Brandon is 2-2 and coming off a 5-4 overtime victory over the Calgary Hitmen in Friday night’s semifinal game. Yes, the Wheat City woke up with a smile yesterday and again today.
So . . . who wins tonight?
Prior to Friday’s game, the only people who gave the Wheat Kings even a puncher’s chance were those wearing gold-coloured glasses. And had you know going into that game that Calgary G Martin Jones would be on top of his game, well, you wouldn’t have given the Wheat Kings any chance at all.
But in the immortal words of Herm Edwards, then the head coach of the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs:
“This is what's great about sports. This is what the greatest thing about sports is. You play to win the game. Hello? You play to win the game. You don't play it to just play it. That's the great thing about sports: you play to win, and I don't care if you don't have any wins. You go play to win. When you start tellin' me it doesn't matter, then retire. Get out! 'Cause it matters."
It mattered to the Brandon Wheat Kings on Friday night. How much will it matter tonight.
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Might this game be decided in the first period? Brandon has allowed 18 goals in its four games here, and 12 of them have come in the first period. . . . In fact, Brandon beat Moncton 4-0 in the round-robin, meaning the Wheat Kings gave up 18 goals in three games. They have twice have allowed five goals in the first period.
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JUST NOTES: One of the highlights of the final should be the opportunity to watch Brandon C Brayden Schenn, who was selected by the Los Angeles Kings with the fifth pick of the 2009 NHL draft, against Windsor LW Taylor Hall, who has been lights out here and is expected to be the first or second selection in next month’s NHL draft in Los Angeles. . . . Schenn was the best player on the ice in Friday’s semifinal when Brandon edged the Calgary Hitmen 5-4 in OT. . . . Hall has the opportunity to become the first player to win the Stafford Smythe Memorial Trophy as tournament MVP in back-to-back seasons in the award’s 35 years. He was named MVP after the tournament in Rimouski a year ago. . . . Windsor F Scott Timmins is playing in his third straight Memorial Cup tournament. He was with the Kitchener Rangers when they were the host team in 2008. They lost the final 4-1 to the Spokane Chiefs. (Ah, yes, you’re thinking. The year the trophy broke!) . . . Timmins was dealt to the Spitfires and was with them at last season’s tournament. . . .
If believe in omens . . . F Dustin Byfuglien of the Chicago Blackhawks played for the Wheat Kings — 11 games over the 2001-02 and 2002-03 seasons. On Friday night, he scored the OT winner for the Blackawks as they beat the San Jose Sharks in an NHL playoff game. In real time, he scored in close proximity to the time that Brandon F Jay Fehr was sniping in OT to beat the Calgary Hitmen in the semifinal game here. . . . On Sunday afternoon, Byfuglien broke a 2-2 tie late in the third period as the Blackhawks eliminated the Sharks. . . .