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| Captain Sam Steel scored the winning goal for the Pats on Friday. |
On Friday night in the semifinal contest of the Memorial Cup
tournament at the Brandt Centre, the host Regina Pats were holding a slim 2-1
lead in the third period over the OHL champion Hamilton Bulldogs. On a Regina
dump in, Bulldogs netminder Kaden Fulcher came way out of his crease and nonchalantly
passed the puck into an open area of the ice.
The puck went on the stick of Steel, who is the Pats star
captain. Fulcher fell down to the ice after being stick checked by Pats
left-winger Nick Henry. Steel easily skated around the fallen goalie and placed
the puck into an empty cage to give the Pats a 3-1 edge with 5:55 to play in
the frame.
That tally turned out to be very key. Just 73 second later,
Bulldogs right-winger Will Bitten broke down the right wing of the Regina zone
on a breakaway and lifted home a shot to the top right corner on Pats netminder
Max Paddock to cut the Regina lead to 3-2. Bitten was sent in on his breakaway
on a beauty spring pass from Bulldogs defenceman Benjamin Gleason.
Hamilton couldn’t net the equalizer.
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| Pats centre Jake Leschyshyn scored into an empty net on Friday. |
Besides Steel’s big plays, the difference in Friday’s
contest was the play of the goaltenders on both sides.
Fulcher had by far the best statics in the round robin
portion of the Memorial Cup. He was good but not outstanding in the Hamilton
goal on Friday turning away 20 of 23 shots sent his way, which included the
lapse on Steel’s winning goal. The Bulldogs finished the tournament with a 2-2
record.
Max Paddock, who is the Pats rookie 17-year-old netminder,
had a couple of shaky games during the round robin portion of the tournament,
but looked like a rookie phenom making 44 saves against the Bulldogs.
His biggest stops came after the Pats lead shrank to 3-2.
Bulldogs left-winger Marian Studenic drove down the right wing and had an
initial shot stopped and a rebound shot turned away by Paddock.
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| Goalie Max Paddock made 44 saves for the Pats on Friday. |
That set the stage for Steel’s shot block inside of the
final minute and his set up to Leschyshyn for the empty-net tally.
Inside the first minute of the first period, the Bulldogs
tried to set a physical tone as defenceman Riley Stillman nailed Pats
right-winger Cameron Hebig with a big open ice hit.
The Pats struck first scoring 5:22 into the first period,
when right-winger Austin Pratt knocked home the rebound from an Emil Oksanen
shot to go ahead 1-0.
The Bulldogs evened thing up at 1-1 at the 7:35 mark of the
second, when defenceman Nicolas Mattinen one-timed home a shot from the point
off a set up pass from Gleason. Mattinen had been a bit snakebitten in the
Memorial Cup firing a number of shots off goalposts, which included hitting the
crossbar of the Regina net late in the first period of Friday’s game.
Regina jumped back out in front 2-1 at the 11-minute mark of
the second, when Hebig fired home a shot from the front of the Hamilton net
after taking a good set up pass from offensive defenceman Josh Mahura.
 |
| Cameron Hebig had a goal for the Pats on Friday. |
A short time after Hebig’s tally, Bulldogs captain Justin
Lemcke took down Pats left-winger Bryce Platt in one of the rare fights that
have occurred in about the last two decades of the Memorial Cup tournament.
Lemcke’s attempt to spark his club had mixed results, as the
Bulldogs fired a lot of shots at the Pats net but there wasn’t an explosion of
offence for the Hamilton side.
The Pats as team blocked a lot of Bulldogs shot attempts,
and Regina brought a bit of a physical game too. Regina defenceman Cale Fleury
had a big hot on Stillman in the third period.
A week ago on May 18, the Pats and Bulldogs opened the
Memorial Cup tournament with a round robin game that was claimed by the Pats
3-2, when Henry scored the winning goal in that contest with 32.6 seconds to
play in the third period.
The Bulldogs finished third overall in the OHL’s regular
season standings with a 43-18-4-3 record and advanced through the playoffs with
a 16-5 mark. The Bulldogs took out the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds in six games
in the OHL’s Championship series.
 |
| Josh Mahura had an assist for the Pats on Friday. |
The Pats finished seventh overall in the WHL’s regular season
with a 40-25-6-1 record and will attempt to win their fourth Memorial Cup title
in team history, with the last championship coming back in 1974 when the
tournament was held in Calgary.
The Titan finished second overall in the QMJHL’s regular season
standings with a 43-15-8-2 record and went 16-4 in the playoffs.
Acadie-Bathurst claimed the round robin clash with Regina at the Memorial Cup
8-6 on May 20.
As five out of the seven games played at the Memorial Cup
were decided by one goal and two were decided by two-goals, this Memorial Cup
has been one of the tightest contested ever, and which should bode well for
expectations of excitement in Sunday’s championship final.
Viveiros departs Broncos for NHL’s Oilers
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| Head coach Manny Viveiros mans the Swift Current Broncos bench. |
On Thursday at a news conference in Swift Current, Viveiros
stepped down as the head coach and director of player personnel for the Broncos
to become an assistant coach with the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers.
The 52-year-old from St. Alberta, Alta., led the Broncos to a 10th overall finish in the WHL’s regular season standings in 2016-17 with a 39-23-4-6 record. The Broncos advanced to the second round of the WHL playoffs falling in a tough seven-game series to the Regina Pats, who would advance to the WHL Championship series.
The 52-year-old from St. Alberta, Alta., led the Broncos to a 10th overall finish in the WHL’s regular season standings in 2016-17 with a 39-23-4-6 record. The Broncos advanced to the second round of the WHL playoffs falling in a tough seven-game series to the Regina Pats, who would advance to the WHL Championship series.
This past season, Viveiros guided the Broncos to the second
best record in the WHL’s regular season at 48-17-5-2. The Broncos set a record
playing 26 games in the WHL playoffs winning the Ed Chynoweth Cup and capturing
the league title for the first since 1993. Swift Current advanced to the
Memorial Cup tournament to play for the CHL title.
At the Memorial Cup tournament in Regina, Sask., the Broncos
went 0-3 in round robin play falling by a one-goal margin each time out.
 |
| Manny Viveiros lifts the Ed Chynoweth Cup. |
In WHL circles, Viveiros is remembered for playing four
season for the Prince Albert Raiders from 1982 to 1986 appearing in 251 regular
season games collecting 60 goals and 261 assists. He helped the Raiders win the
Memorial Cup in 1985.
Viveiros was selected in the sixth round and 106th
overall in the 1984 NHL Entry Draft by the Oilers. He appeared in 29 NHL regular
seasons over three seasons from 1985 to 1988 with the Minnesota North Stars
collecting one goal and 11 assists. He spent 16 seasons playing professionally
in Austria from 1991 to 2007.
The Broncos also announced director of business operations
Dianne Sletten is moving to other pursuits leaving the team after six seasons.
Does the “Curse of the Drop” still live?
On May 25, 2008, the WHL champion Spokane Chiefs downed the
host Kitchener Rangers 4-1 in the Memorial Cup tournament’s championship game.
It marked the second time the Chiefs captured the Memorial Cup to become CHL
champions.
After winning the title in 2008, Chiefs captain Chris Bruton
accepted the Memorial Cup. Bruton turned and was going to give the Memorial Cup
to defenceman Trevor Glass. Glass, who was in his 19-year-old season at the
time, was with the Medicine Hat Tigers the previous campaign when they won the
WHL title and fell 3-1 in the Memorial Cup championship game to the host
Vancouver Giants.
As Bruton reached out to hand the Memorial Cup to Glass, the
trophy separated at the neck and fell to the ice to the shock of the spectators
in Kitchener, Ont.
Following that moment the WHL went on its longest drought
ever of not winning major junior hockey’s biggest prize spanning five seasons
from 2009 to 2013. Clubs from the WHL became eligible to play for the Memorial Cup on a regular basis in the 1970-1971 campaign.
The drought was broken by the Edmonton Oil Kings in 2014. Edmonton was playing to honour the memory of former player Kristians Pelss, who was with Edmonton’s 2012 WHL championship team and passed away in 2013 due to a recreation diving accident.
The drought was broken by the Edmonton Oil Kings in 2014. Edmonton was playing to honour the memory of former player Kristians Pelss, who was with Edmonton’s 2012 WHL championship team and passed away in 2013 due to a recreation diving accident.
After the Oil Kings win, the WHL entry was unable to win the
next three Memorial Cup tournaments. The WHL has won one of the last nine
Memorial Cup tournament, so the host Regina Pats will try and make that record
two for the last 10, when they face the QMJHL champion Acadie-Bathurst Titan in
Sunday’s championship game (5 p.m., Brandt Centre).
The video of the Chiefs mishap with the Memorial Cup can be
found below.
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to stankssports@gmail.com.
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