PHOTO BY SCOTT VANKOUGHNETT
Welcome to the final of the 2009 Mastercard Memorial Cup pitting the OHL Champion Windsor Spitfires against the WHL Champion Kelowna Rockets
- Windsor is looking to be the first team to win the championship after playing in a tie-breaker game
- Windsor defeated Kelowna in their first matchup of the tournament 2-1, allowing them to force the tie-breaker game
- Watch for Scott and I on the ice after the game conducting post-game interviews with the winning team
- They’re anticipating a sell-out crowd here in Rimouski for the final, which would be great considering neither Quebec team is in the final
- I think we’re in for a treat here…..you could tell before the game that these two teams want to win, and will be willing to do anything to get it
1st Period
- Windsor starting strong, jumping on the Rockets in the first couple of minutes….every time Kelowna touches the puck the fans are booing….I felt it should be the other way around…but apparently everyone here is cheering for Windsor
- 16:30: Great play Greg Niemsz to pick the pocket of the Rockets forward coming out of their zone, passing to Adam Henrique in the slot, who then fired it past Mark Guggenberger low blocker side for the 1-0 Spitfire lead
- The crowd is very pro-Windsor, as demonstrated after the goal with everyone in the building (aside from the Rockets fans)
- 15:02: The “Moustachian-One” Dale Mitchell with a great shot from the top of the right circle, beating Guggenberger glove side to give Windsor a 2-0 lead
- If the Rockets don’t mount some sort of offence here…its going to be put into question the four-day layoff and how they’ve started extremely slow…
- An attempted hit by Kelowna’s Jamie Benn on Taylor Hall along the boards, but Hall avoided it and Benn went crashing into the boards hard…..remains to be seen if he will stay in this game….
- A knee-on-knee collision on Spitfires Marc Cundari sends them to the powerplay, where they will look to take a big 3-0 lead
- 12:49: Windsor is absolutely pounding Kelowna now…great work by Hall down load getting the puck back to Rob Kwiet at the point, who let a seeing-eye wrist shot through the crowd for the 3-0 lead
- Guggenberg has been pulled from the game, as Adam Brown comes in to replace him….maybe this will wake the Rockets up…
- Benn has returned to the game….looks like it was his low back
- Kelowna has mounted a bit of an attack after the mid-point of this first period….starting to control the play a little bit. If they get one, I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see Windsor fold up…
- Rockets get the powerplay they were looking for, as Ryan Ellis goes off for holding
- They had a few chances, but goaltender Andrew Engelage was able to stand tall for the Spitfires
- Former World Junior teammates Jamie Benn and Ryan Ellis mix it up…as Benn hits Ellis from behind deep in the Spitfire zone….Spits to the PP
- As the period ends, another knee-on-knee check delivered by Lane MacDermid to the Rockets Colin Long….Long was in obvious pain and will be looked at at the intermission…
At the end of the first period….Windsor – 3, Kelowna – 0
2nd Period
- 19:52: Massive start by the Rockets, as they come right out of the gate and Colin Long makes the Spitfires pay, putting in Jamie Benn’s rebound to make it 3-1
- Very balanced attack from both teams 5 minutes into the first period….lots of physicality…
- Both teams going back and forth…not much to report at this point…
- Halfway through the period, Kelowna goes to the powerplay after a tripping call to Lane MacDermid…
- 7:11: Leave it to the Spitfires Ryan Ellis to score a big goal. Ellis took a pass from Taylor Hall across the blue-line, and fired a slapshot passed Adam Brown….a goal he should have probably had….to make it 4-1
- The Rockets will be desperate to score a goal before the intermission…as leaving Windsor with a three goal lead going into the 3rd could be lights out…
- Spitfires going to the powerplay again, as an undisciplined penalty to Jamie Benn for high sticking, a four-minute job, kills any chance of momentum that the Rockets may have had…
- Is it too early to write the Rockets off?….after the double-minor the Benn…the life is completely taken from them and will need an absolute must-goal at the beginning of the 3rd period if they have any chance of winning this game…
At the end of the 2nd period….Windsor – 4, Kelowna – 1
3rd Period
- Do or die time for the Rockets….
- 20 minutes – 1 championship for the Spitfires….need to hold the three goal lead….
- Usually a trap works where you have the defenceman step up at the blueline and pinch off any attacking players….but the Spitfires D are allowing the Rockets forwards into the zone……strange…
- The game has slowed down quite a bit…..everyone sensing that Windsor is going to wint his one….Kelowna cant’ get anything going as Windsor is doing a great job of trapping up the neutral zone
- Hilarious….in the stands, they were doing a Boston Pizza giveaway…and went up to an English speaking person….the girl said her schpeal in french….to which the guy replied “I don’t know French” and everyone in the section booed….the girl then said they were going to find someone else in the stands that spoke french…….so much for being a bilingual country….
- Watch for Scott and I on Sportsnet after the game…..conducting on-ice interviews
- Could potentially be a bold call with 10 minutes left in the game, but in the words of former Toronto Raptors basketball announcer Chuck Swirsky, “Break out the salami and cheese, this one’s done!”
- Just want to say thanks to everyone who has been following along….I appreciate the support and hopefully you will keep using www.openicehockey.com as one of your sports information sites!
- No idea who the player of the game or the tournament is going to be…..Hall, Ellis, Dale Mitchell, Engelage, Henrique have all been great……Mitchell’s natural hat-trick in the tie-breaker game is probably the biggest turning point of the tournament from the Spitfires stand point….it got them on a role, and they haven’t looked back since…
- Another great moment in the stands….One of the ushers was shooting the t-shirt cannon, but the thing was too powerful….so they either shot it directly at the roof and it fell into the front row, or they blasted it against the back wall….I was just hoping they accidentally shot someone point blank….would have been hilarious!
- I’m off to the zamboni entrance…..hope all that have been following along have enjoyed the blog just as much as I’ve enjoyed doing it…..Cheers!
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