Spitfires and Wheat Kings meet in MasterCard Memorial Cup final

By Aaron Bell

The last time the Windsor Spitfires and Brandon Wheat Kings met, they were teams going in different directions.

The Spitfires and Wheat Kings faced each other in the opening game of the 2010 MasterCard Memorial Cup last Friday. Windsor was coming off their second straight OHL championship and were looking to repeat as Memorial Cup champions while the Wheat Kings were shaking the rust off of a three week layoff after losing in the WHL semi-finals to the Calgary Hitmen.

The Spitfires scored four times in the first five minutes of that game and went on to beat the home team 9-3.

Fast forward nine days and the Wheat Kings are riding high after a 5-4 overtime win over the Hitmen in the semi-finals on Friday while the Spitfires have been idle since Wednesday after clinching a berth in the final with a perfect 3-0 round robin record.

They will meet in the championship game of the tournament on Sunday (7:00 p.m. Eastern on Rogers Sportsnet and RDS) to decide the Canadian Hockey League’s national champion.

“It was the first game of the Memorial Cup and it’s the biggest hockey stage for Canadian junior players and the nerves were running,” said Wheat Kings’ defenceman Colby Robak.  “Everyone was gripping the stick a little tight but the guys are focused and relaxed and ready to play now.”

The Spitfires won the Memorial Cup last year in Rimouski, QC after dropping their first two games of the tournament. They won their final round robin game against the Kelowna Rockets to set up a tie-breaker game and won three straight to win the championship. 

This year, they have 11 players back in their lineup from that team and they won all three of their round robin games to earn the bye to the final.

“It’s been a much easier route this year,” said Spitfires’ captain Harry Young, who could be just the second team captain to hoist the trophy in consecutive years following Al MacNeil, who captained the Toronto Marlboros to back-to-back titles in 1955 and 1956.

The Wheat Kings only had one round robin win this year but the Moncton Wildcats lost all three of their games so Brandon avoided a tie-breaker game. They scored a comeback win against the Hitmen on Friday and are looking to win the Memorial Cup on home ice. They have stolen a page out the Spitfires’ book on resiliency and are now one win away from winning the CHL championship.

“We’re on an emotional high,” said Wheat Kings’ co-captain Brayden Schenn. “We’ve settled down and are focused on what’s ahead of us. Obviously it was nice to win that (semi-final) but the biggest game is yet to come and we can’t wait for Sunday. We’ve been talking about this all year. We wanted to be in the Memorial Cup final and it’s here now.”

Neither team expects a repeat performance from the last time they met.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that they will come out different,” said Spitfires’ forward Zack Kassian, who came to the team from the Peterborough Petes in January. “They had a long layoff when we first played them and that’s huge in hockey. As anyone could see in their game against Calgary they are a totally different team.”

The Spitfires are looking to become the first team since the Kamloops Blazers in 1994 and 1995 to win the Memorial Cup in consecutive seasons. Only five other teams have won back-to-back Memorial Cup championships.

“Obviously everyone that plays junior hockey plays for this (opportunity) and I’m happy that I’ve got the chance,” Kassian said.

The Spitfires have the second longest winning streak in the tournament with seven straight wins dating back to last year. The Blazers won 12 in a row from 1992 through 1995.

Photo: Aaron Bell/CHL Images