Spokane Wins Memorial Cup with 4-1 win over host team.

Game recap here

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Then check out the latest installment from Jay Dahl, Backjumping, which won the CBC show "Short Film Faceoff" on Wednesday night.



The Memorial Cup semi-finals are tonight at 8pm (AST). You can catch it on Sportsnet... unless of course there is some sort of rain-delayed baseball game.

Giv'r gas.

The final round robin game of the Memorial cup was tonight, Kitchener versus Belleville. The two teams were already pre-determined to be meeting each other in the semi finals on Friday, and judging by the game tonight, Friday will be a "dandy" as Bob Cole would say.

I checked the score after the first period and it appeared that Kitchener (the host team) had it under control, with a 3-0 lead. But as we all know, 3-0 is a pretty dangerous lead. Anyway I went out for a few pops at Boston Pizza, and came home about a half hour ago to the sight of a 4-3 Belleville come-from-behind, overtime win.

Bets anyone?

Eastern Conference Champions

Sit. Down. Flyers.
If anyone had any doubts about whether the Pittsburgh Penguins would win this series, they were silenced today.

Whilst Canada was getting their ass handed to them by the Russians at least something was right in the hockey world. Before I could even switch the television over to CBC after almost throwing something at it, the game was 2-0. Ryan Malone (a player rumoured to be hitting the Free Agent highway this summer) scored first and opened the floodgates that was Martin Biron's net. The opposite could be said for Marc-Andre Fleury, who made a few timely saves early in the game, and one huge one late to preserve his shut-out.

The entire team was running on what seemed to be all cylinders, getting points from ten different players. Marian Hossa (4), Ryan Malone (3), Sidney Crosby (2), Maxime Talbot (2), Evgeni Malkin, Sergei Gonchar, Jordan Staal, Adam Hall, Pascal Dupuis, Brooks Orpik.

And it was almost like Sidney Crosby said a big 'NO, YOU SUCK' to the fans that rode him all of game four. Sit down. Flyers. and double sit down, flyers fans.

The Penguins now await the winner of the Dallas and Detroit final in the west. And by the way the last game went, it appears the momentum is in Dallas's hands. Game six of that series goes Monday night in Dallas.




The Memorial Cup game is currently in progress. Apparently instead of showing the Kitchener-Spokane game, the main Sportsnet network decided to go with random programming while the Bluejays game was in rain delay (see earlier post on Baseball). So you can only get the Memorial Cup game if you've got digital cable, where you can pick up one of the regional channels. Dear Sportsnet, You suck.

Memorial Cup opens.

Junior hockey's trophy the Memorial Cup, arguably one of the most difficult trophies to win in all of sport, starts today. To reach the Memorial Cup, teams play four rounds of best-of-seven series (same as the NHL) to win their league title, but that's not where it ends (it ends after four rounds in the NHL). There are three major geographic leagues in Canada's junior system. The Quebec League (QMJHL), the Ontario League (OHL) and the Western League (WHL) each send their winner of their championship to the Memorial Cup, as well as the host team gets an automatic bye into the tournament. The Memorial Cup lasts a little over a week, each team first plays every other team (so, three games) and then based on standings during those preliminary games, a one game knock out style for quarter(*correction* there is no quarters.. how can there be, there's only 4 teams, duh), semi and finals.



Kitchener Rangers (host), Belleville Bulls (OHL), Gatineau Olympiques (QMJHL), Spokane Chiefs (WHL).

First game at 7pm EST (Sportsnet), Rangers vs Gatineau.

Point form.

It's Saturday, that bright shiny orb in the sky finally returned and... I'm at work. It's a bit busy here today (seems like a few people have the rum and coke flu) but a lot happened that just needs to be talked about, so we're going to do a quick run down.

World Championships

- Canada and Slovenia: score 5-1. Dany Heatley was back in fine form after a less than par playoffs with a hattrick and player of the game. But the real star of the game was Slovenia's goaltender Robert Kristan who faced 65 goals and let in just 5 goals, Kristan recieved a resounding standing ovation from the Metro Centre crowd in appreciation of his efforts.

- Latvia USA: score 4-0. Latvia played just like their fans cheered. Balls out. They lost, but it was exciting... mostly because of the loud, drunken fans, who cheered and banged giant drums throughout the game. I cannot wait until Latvia scores, I want to see what happens.

- Games today: Finland VERSUS Germany (4:30 AST) and Slovakia VERSUS Norway (8:15 AST)


NHL


- Carey Price will be back in nets for game five tonight. Tonight will be a huge test for the young goaltender, as he faces the pressure of coming back from being benched last game and facing elimination. It will be a goaltender's battle as Martin Biron has been playing extremely well and is one of the main reasons the Flyers are in the position to knock off the number one seed Canadiens.

- expect to see Guy Carbonneau's lucky, shiny, colourful, silk tie tonight.

- only 1 broom out for Round 2. The San Jose Sharks overcame a 2-0 deficit to win 3-2 in overtime and live another day. Game six is in Dallas.


MEMORIAL CUP
The Memorial Cup is just two weeks away and there are a few teams that have already secured a spot.
- Belleville Bulls
- Kitchener Rangers(host team)
Two series are still yet to be determined the Western Hockey League finals (Lethbridge or Spokane)and the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League finals (Rouyn Noranda Huskies or Gatineau Olympiques)