 |
| Josh Bloom enjoys the Memorial Cup. (Photo by Eric Young/CHL) |
On Sunday night, the host Spirit found themselves locked in a 3-3 tie with the OHL champion London Knights in the championship game of the Memorial Cup tournament at the DOW Event Centre in Saginaw, Michigan. With less than 25 seconds remaining in the third period, Spirit defenceman Jorian Donovan fired a point shot on the London goal that resulted in a net scramble.
During the net scramble, Bloom, who is a 20-year-old left-winger playing in the final game of his major junior career, found a loose puck in the crease of the London net. He backhanded the puck underneath a fallen Knights defenceman into the net to put the Knights up 4-3 with 21.7 seconds remaining in the third.
After Bloom’s goal went into the net, the tournament game high crowd of 5,373 spectators exploded into joyful delirium except for the healthy contingent of Knights supporters. The cheers hit another level as the Spirit killed of the remaining time in the frame to finalize a 4-3 final score in their favour.
The Spirit players poured on to the ice to celebrate winning the Memorial Cup and becoming CHL champions. The win marked the first championship for the Spirit franchise since it relocated to Saginaw before the start of the 2002-03 campaign.
The Spirit franchise can trace its history back to 1943. It existed in the Ontario centres of St. Catharines from 1943-76, Niagara Falls from 1976 to 1982 and North Bay from 1982 to 2002. The franchise previously won the Memorial Cup on two occasions in 1954 and 1960 as the St. Catherines Teepees.
Sunday’s win allowed the Spirit to get the last laugh on the Knights for the 2023-24 campaign. Throughout the regular season, the two clubs battled for first overall in the OHL.
The Knights topped the OHL standings with a 50-14-1-3 record and were ranked second in the final CHL Top 10 Rankings. The Spirit finished second overall in the OHL two points behind the Knights with a 50-16-1-1 record. Saginaw was rated third in the final CHL Top 10 Rankings.
During the regular season, the Spirit and Knights faced each other four times and each side came away with two wins. The two squads would meet in the OHL’s Western Conference Championship Series, and the Knights took the best-of-seven set 4-2.
Last Wednesday, the Spirit and Knights collided in the final round robin contest of the Memorial Cup tournament. The two sides were locked in a 2-2 tie until the Knights scored twice in the final two minutes of the third to claim a 4-2 victory.
 |
| Josh Bloom (#17) had three points on Sunday. (Photo by Eric Young/CHL) |
The Spirit finished the tournament posting a 4-1 record while the Knights wrapped up the event with a 3-1 mark. London saw an overall win streak of eight games going back to the OHL Playoffs and a seven game winning streak at the Memorial Cup tournament come to an end with Sunday’s loss to the Spirit.
For the longest time in Sunday’s clash, it appeared the Spirit were going to win without any need for last second dramatics. The host squad came out flying in the first period jumped out to a 2-0 lead, while holding a 13-1 edge in shots on goal.
Star centre Owen Beck scored both of the Knights goals in the opening 20 minutes, while Bloom picked up assists on both tallies. Beck roof home his first tally to the top right corner of the London net at the 9:07 mark of the opening frame. His shot came from inside the left faceoff circle in the London zone shortly after an offensive zone draw.
Beck scored his second goal on the power-play one-timing home a shot from the right faceoff dot in the London zone to the top right corner of the Knights net with 44.3 seconds remaining in the first to give the Spirit their two-goal edge.
While the Spirit were energized in the opening 20 minutes, the Knights looked flat and proceeded to look frustrated at the end of the stanza. Beck’s power-play goal inside the final minute of the first period came from Knights 19-year-old left-winger Landon Sim being given a major penalty for checking to the head and a game misconduct with 62 seconds remaining in the first.
Sim was assessed those infractions after he elbowed Spirit star offensive-defenceman Zayne Parekh on the chin. Parekh was helped to the dressing after being down on the ice after Sim’s hit. The Spirit blue-liner returned to play the rest of the contest after the first intermission.
The officials went to a video review to give Sim a major penalty.
At the start of the second, it looked the Knights were going to continue to sink in quicksand. At the 7:47 mark of the frame, Knights star left-winger Denver Barkey gave the puck away in the centre ice zone to Spirit standout centre Joey Willis.
Willis jetted into the London zone on a contested breakaway and put a backhand shot home to the top right corner of the London net to push the Spirit advantage out to 3-0. At the time of Willis’s goal, the Spirit held a 3-0 lead and a 20-1 edge in shots on goal.
 |
| Josh Bloom (#17) reacts to his winning goal. (Photo by Eric Young/CHL) |
He wristed a shot into the top left corner of the Spirit net to cut the host’s lead to 3-1. Halttunen’s tally came on just the second shot on goal for the Knights.
When the second period came to a close, the Spirit were still up 3-1 and held a 24-6 edge in shots on goal.
The Knights continued to rally in the third. At the 7:48 mark of the frame, Knights star right-winger Easton Cowan slipped home from the top of the right faceoff circle a shot through a screen to trim the Spirit lead to 3-2.
With 9:44 remaining in the third, Knights star offensive-defenceman Sam Dickinson scored the equalizer that forced a 3-3 tie on a three-on-one rush. Dickinson received a pass on the left wing from Knights overage power forward Max McCue and drilled the game-tying goal into the Saginaw net. The Knights third goal came on their 10th shot on net of the contest.
That set the stage for the dramatics with Bloom’s winner coming with 21.7 seconds remaining in the third.
Andrew Oke stopped 10 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Spirit. Michael Simpson turned away 27 shots to take the setback in net for the Knights.
The Knights have won the Memorial Cup twice in their history coming in 2005 and 2016.
Beck was named the MVP of the tournament claiming the Stafford Smythe Memorial Trophy. He recorded four goals, one assist and a plus-four rating in the plus-minus department in the five games the Spirit played at the tournament.
On top of the tournament MVP honour, Beck was named to the tournament all-star team along with Spirit offensive-defenceman Rodwin Dionicio.
 |
| The Spirit pictured with the Memorial Cup. (Photo by Eric Young/CHL) |
Moose Jaw Warriors captain and star offensive-defenceman Denton Mateychuk was named to the tournament all-star team along with Warriors star centre Brayden Yager. Mateychuk captured the award as the event’s most sportsmanlike player.
Overall, Sunday’s Memorial Cup championship game belonged to the Spirit. They capped their championship win with an unforgettable franchise moment courtesy of Bloom’s winner in the final seconds of the game.
Warriors’ Firkus, Mateychuk named CHL first
team all-stars
 |
| Jagger Firkus was named a CHL first team all-star. |
The two stars from the Moose Jaw Warriors were both CHL first team all-stars with Firkus taking a spot at forward and Mateychuk a spot on defence. Both played key roles in helping the Warriors win their first WHL championship in team history in 2023-24.
Firkus, who was named the CHL’s player of the year, topped the CHL in scoring with 126 points coming off 61 goals and 65 assists to go with a plus-31 rating in the plus-minus department in 63 regular season games. Mateychuk, who is the Warriors captain, collected 75 points coming off 17 goals and 58 assists to go with a plus-35 rating in 52 regular season games. He was named the MVP of the WHL Playoffs in the Warriors run to winning the league title.
The WHL had one other played named a CHL first team all-star as Zac Funk of the Prince George Cougars took up a spot at forward. The WHL had two players named CHL second team all-stars in defeceman Carter Yakemchuk of the Calgary Hitmen and forward Berkly Catton of the Spokane Chiefs.
 |
| Denton Mateychuk was named a CHL first team all-star. |
McKenna was also named to the CHL all-rookie team along with two other WHL players in defenceman Tarin Smith of the Everett Silvertips and forward Terik Parascak of the Prince George Cougars.
If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.
-------
If you like what you
see here, you might want to donate to the cause to keep independent media like
this blog going. Should you choose to help out, feel free to click on the
DONATE button in the upper right corner. Thank you for
stopping in.
