Spokane Wins Memorial Cup

On Sunday afternoon, the Spokane Chiefs won their first Memorial Cup since 1991 with a 4-1 win over the Kitchener Rangers. They join the Portland Winter Hawks as the only two US based CHL teams to win the Cup at all, and like Portland, winning it twice.

Dustin Tokarski made 53 saves in the win and picked up the Stafford Smythe Trophy as the tournament MVP. Judd Blackwater, Drayson Bowman, Trevor Glass, and Jared Cowan scored for Spokane. Brandon Mashinter replied for Kitchener.

The Rangers out-shot the Chiefs 54-26 in the championship game. At the conclusion of the game on Sunday, the award winners and All-Star teams were also announced.

Stafford Smythe Memorial Trophy (MVP) - Dustin Tokarski, Spokane Chiefs

George Parsons Memorial Trophy (Most Sportsmanlike Player) - Matt Halischuk, Kitchener Rangers

Hap Emms Memorial Trophy (Top Goaltender) - Dustin Tokarski, Spokane Chiefs

Ed Chynoweth Trophy (Top Scorer) - Justin Azevedo, Kitchener Rangers

All-Star Team

Forwards - Justin Azevedo, Kitchener Rangers, Drayson Bowman, Spokane Chiefs, Mitch Wahl, Spokane Chiefs
Defense - Justin Falk, Spokane Chiefs, Ben Shutron, Kitchener Rangers
Goal - Dustin Tokarski, Spokane Chiefs

Lalonde-McNicoll, Morehouse and Slaney Win CHL Awards

When the CHL handed out the hardware at the CHL Awards show in Kitchener, three QMJHLers walked away with awards. Shawinigan Cataractes’ Cedric Lalonde-McNicoll was named the Prospects Hockey Sportsman of the Year award.

Moncton Wildcat Chris Morehouse, who participates in quite a bit of charity work in the Moncton area, was named the Home Hardware Humanitarian of the Year, and Cape Breton Screaming Eagle Robert Slaney received the Subway Scholastic Player of the Year honors.

The remaining awards were as follows:

Justin Azevedo – Kitchener Rangers: CCM Player of the Year and Boston Pizza Top Scorer of the Year

Karl Alzner – Calgary Hitmen: Molson Canadian Defenseman of the Year

Chet Pickard – Tri-City Americans: ADT Goaltender of the Year

Taylor Hall – Windsor Spitfires: BMO Rookie of the Year

Bob Boughner – Windsor Spitfires: Go RVing Brian Kilrea Coach of the Year

Steven Stamkos – Sarnia Sting: NAPA Auto Parts Top Draft Prospect

Durocher Gets Cape Breton Job

On Wednesday, Cape Breton announced that Mario Durocher is the new General Manager and head coach effective June 1st, 2008. For the past two seasons, he was the assistant under Pascal Vincent who left to accept the same position with the Montreal Juniors.

Durocher has also been a head coach with Victoriaville, Sherbrooke, Lewiston, and Acadie-Bathurst and has a 196-162-26 regular season record along with and 30-23 playoff one.

Under his guidance, Victoriaville won the President’s Cup in 2002 and went all the way to the Memorial Cup final in Guelph, ON where they lost to WHL Champions the Kootenay Ice. Durocher was also Team Canada’s head coach at the 2004 World Junior Hockey Championships.

He also has experience at the International level, having been the head coach of Canada’s National Junior Team in 2004 in Helsinki/Hämeenlinna, Finland where they lost to the Americans in the gold medal game.

2008-09 Schedule Announced

On Wednesday, the league released the 2008-09 regular season schedule.
Six hundred and twelve games will take place with each team playing 68 regular season games. Eighty percent of the games will be played on the weekends in order to help the players’ academically.

The league will also go to a four division format next season with the teams aligned as follows:

Atlantic Division: Acadie-Bathurst, Cape Breton, Halifax, Moncton, PEI and Saint John
TELUS West Division : Gatineau, Montreal, Rouyn-Noranda and Val-d’Or
TELUS Central Division : Drummondville, Lewiston, Shawinigan and Victoriaville
TELUS East Division : Baie-Comeau, Chicoutimi, Quebec and Rimouski

Teams will take on division rivals at least eight times (10 maximum). Teams in the Atlantic Division will play two games (one home and away) against teams in the other three teams to minimize travel.

On December 5th and 6th, the Quebec Remparts will travel to Portland, ME to take on the Lewiston MAINEiacs at the Cumberland County Civic Center.

The 2008-09 regular season will begin on September 11th as Gatineau hosts Victoriaville at the Robert-Guertin Arena.

Finally, the first game of the 2008-09 regular season will be played at the Robert-Guertin Arena in Gatineau, as the President Cup champion Olympiques host the Victoriaville Tigres.

Click here to view the 2008-09 Schedule...

QMJHL Officials Work Stanley Cup Finals

When the Stanley Cup finals began last Saturday night, Pittsburgh Penguins teammates Sidney Crosby, Maxime Talbot, and Marc-Andre Fleury weren’t the only Q graduates on the ice. The NHL also selected three former officials (one referee and two linesmn) to work the lines for Detroit and Pittsburgh.

Referee Marc Joanette called the shots on the ice for 11 seasons from 1987-90 as a linesman and from 1991-98 as a referee in the QMJHL before moving on to the big league. He has made 470 regular season and 28 playoff starts. This is his first Stanley Cup final.

Linesman Jean Morin was part of the QMJHL officiating crew from 1987-91 and has taken part in 973 regulars season and 119 playoff NHL games since coming to the league in 1994. This season marks his fifth Stanley Cup final appearance.

Pierre Racicot started in the Q in 1998 and finished in 1992 and worked his first NHL game in 1993. He made his first playoff appearance in 1997 and now has 893 regular season and 69 playoff games under his belt. This is his second trip to the Stanley Cup finals. Racicot was also a linesman at the 2006 Winter Olympic Games.