As the provincial lockdown continues in Ontario, I’ve been thinking back a lot lately.
Many of those thoughts have been some of the events I’ve had the luxury of covering over the past ten years or so between working as a freelance reporter and as a full-time sports reporter with Village Media.
I’ve been in attendance for some great games and events over the years.
Back in the spring of 2011, I was in Mississauga for my first Memorial Cup.
The tournament final that year featured the host Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors and Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s Saint John Sea Dogs.
The Sea Dogs win in the final marked the first Maritime-based team to win the tournament.
Some of the talent in the tournament that year included current Florida Panthers forward Jonathan Huberdeau with the Sea Dogs and Stanley Cup champion Jordan Binnington of the St. Louis Blues tending goal with the Ontario Hockey League’s Owen Sound Attack.
The following year at the tournament in Shawinigan, Que., the championship game was one that will stick in my memory as well.
On May 27, 2012, the Shawinigan Cataractes beat the London Knights 2-1 in overtime to win the Memorial Cup on home ice.
Then known as Centre Bionest, the host arena was easily one of the loudest arenas I’ve been in as a reporter.
Anton Zlobin scored with just over two minutes to go in the first overtime period to give the Cataractes the win.
The story from that game that always sticks out in my mind is Shawinigan coach Eric Veilleux saying following the game that Zlobin wanted to come off the ice prior to the goal as he was in the midst of a long shift.
“I owe him one,” Veilleux said following the game.
“I just told him to go,” Veilleux also said. “He went and then he came back and said ‘I’ll go, but if we lose the faceoff and the puck comes out, can I come to the bench? I’m too tired, I can’t go.’ I told him, ‘Go. I don’t care what you do after the faceoff. Just go’ and he went.”
Moments after a faceoff win in the Knights zone, Zlobin took a feed from Michael Bournival and beat London goaltender Michael Houser to give the Cataractes their first Memorial Cup title in team history.
“I just shot the puck and saw the red light, I don’t even remember the 30 seconds before it,” Zlobin said at the time. “I’m just so excited.”
Those are the kind of stories that make this job fun.
That tournament in 2012 was some of the most fun I’ve had covering the sport.
A small town of roughly 50,000 people northeast of Montreal, Shawinigan embraced.
It didn’t matter where in the city you went; people were talking about the tournament. Not that it’s not the case in other markets, but there’s just something about small-town Canada and the Memorial Cup that go hand-in-hand.
Another Memorial Cup final memory comes from the 2015 tournament in Quebec City and not surprisingly, also involved an overtime finish.
On the final day of May, the Oshawa Generals, thanks to a pair of goals from Anthony Cirelli, beat the Kelowna Rockets 2-1 in the final game at the storied Colisee.
Cirelli’s story was one that gives a lot of players hope.
A rookie with the Generals at the time, Cirelli made the team that season as a free agent invite and went on to score the two biggest goals of the season for the team.
That game between the Generals and Rockets was also the final hockey game played at the arena, which was home to the NHL’s Quebec Nordiques as well as the famed Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament.
Closer to home, I think back to having the opportunity to cover the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge in 2016, which featured a large contingent of players who are currently steps away from being NHL regulars.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention what was likely one of the biggest games on a local level that I’ve had the opportunity to cover.
The game that always tends to stand out for me is game seven of the OHL’s Western Conference final in 2018 at what was then known as the Essar Centre between the Soo Greyhounds and Kitchener Rangers.
Mentioning the atmosphere in Shawinigan at the 2012 Memorial Cup, the Essar Centre during that game between the Greyhounds and Rangers certainly rivals that game.
Jack Kopacka was the hero for the Greyhounds on that night, beating Mario Culina 5-hole from the slot in double overtime to give the Greyhounds the win and send the team to its first OHL final since 1993.
That series as a while provided plenty of drama.
From Connor Timmins scoring the game-winning goal with no-time left on the clock in the opening game to Kole Sherwood scoring the overtime winner for the Rangers in game six just to send the series to a seventh game, there were no shortage of stories in that series, and from that playoff run in general by the Greyhounds.
Consider that in the second round of the playoffs that year, the Greyhounds trailed Owen Sound 2-1 heading into game four and won game seven two days after losing 7-1 in game six in Owen Sound.
Game 7 between the Greyhounds and Attack was also something to remember.
The Greyhounds led that game 8-3 with six minutes to go before Owen Sound scored three times in just under three minutes to add a little bit of drama to what was eventually a 9-7 Greyhounds win.
That’s the great thing about sports, and why I enjoy covering it so much.
There’s always going to be a hero and there’s always going to be drama and a great story somewhere and I wouldn’t trade the opportunity for anything.