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Washington Post
19 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
London Knights beat Medicine Hat Tigers 4-1 for 3rd Memorial Cup title
RIMOUSKI, Quebec — Philadelphia Flyers prospect Denver Barkey scored twice in the second period and the London Knights beat the Medicine Hat Tigers 4-1 on Saturday night for their third Memorial Cup title. Jacob Julien and Easton Cowan also scored and Austin Elliott made 31 saves to help the Ontario Hockey League champion Knights win the junior hockey championship a year after losing in the final to host Saginaw. 'This is something I'll never forget,' said Barkey, London's captain. 'We worked all year toward this, and this is the tightest team I've ever played on. To be able to do it with these guys. It's so surreal. Going to remember this for life.' After a 3-1 loss to Western Hockey League champion Medicine Hat on Tuesday night in round-robin play, London beat Moncton 5-2 on Friday night in the semifinal game to set up the rematch with the Tigers. London also won the Memorial Cup in 2005 and 2016. The Knights are owned by former NHL players Dale and Mark Hunter and Basil McRae, with Dale Hunter serving as president and coach and Mark Hunter as general manager. Dale Hunter won his third title to match former Kamloops and Vancouver coach Don Hay's record. 'It's an empty feeling when you go home with nothing,' Dale Hunter said. 'When you come to this tournament, you had a good year, but when you don't win the last game, it's not successful.' Medicine Hat star Gavin McKenna spoiled Elliott's shutout bid early in the third period, and Harrison Meneghin stopped 20 shots for the Tigers. They won the Memorial Cup in 1987 and 1988. 'They cared, they tried,' Tigers coach Willie Desjardins said. 'Coming in, we only have one problem, that's London's a really good hockey team. It wasn't that we didn't want it, wasn't that we didn't try. They're just a good team.' Julien opened the scoring midway through the first period. Cowan, a first-round pick by Toronto, and Barkey scored in a 1:40 span early in the second and Barkey made it 4-0 on a power play with 7:52 left in the period. ___ AP sports:
Yahoo
20 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
London Knights beat Medicine Hat Tigers 4-1 for 3rd Memorial Cup title
RIMOUSKI, Quebec (AP) — Philadelphia Flyers prospect Denver Barkey scored twice in the second period and the London Knights beat the Medicine Hat Tigers 4-1 on Saturday night for their third Memorial Cup title. Jacob Julien and Easton Cowan also scored and Austin Elliott made 31 saves to help the Ontario Hockey League champion Knights win the junior hockey championship a year after losing in the final to host Saginaw. Advertisement After a 3-1 loss to Western Hockey League champion Medicine Hat on Tuesday night in round-robin play, London beat Moncton 5-2 on Friday night in the semifinal game to set up the rematch with the Tigers. London also won the Memorial Cup in 2005 and 2016. The Knights are owned by former NHL players Dale and Mark Hunter and Basil McRea, with Dale Hunter serving as president and coach and Mark Hunter as general manager. Dale Hunter won his third title to match former Kamloops and Vancouver coach Don Hay's record. Medicine Hat star Gavin McKenna spoiled Elliott's shutout bid early in the third period, and Harrison Meneghin stopped 20 shots for the Tigers. They won the Memorial Cup in 1987 and 1988. Julien opened the scoring midway through the first period. Cowan, a first-round pick by Toronto, and Barkey scored in a 1:40 span early in the second and Barkey made it 4-0 on a power play with 7:52 left in the period. ___ AP sports: The Associated Press
National Post
a day ago
- Entertainment
- National Post
London Knights redeem themselves with Memorial Cup crown
Article content They finally wrote their storybook ending. Article content Article content The London Knights converted last year's Memorial Cup heartbreak into the ultimate comeback tale by scoring the game's first four goals in a 4-1 victory over Medicine Hat to claim the Canadian Hockey League's biggest prize before 4,512 on Sunday at Sun Life Financial Coliseum. They shrugged off an early push from the well-rested and previously unbeaten Tigers, then held them off during a furious finish. You need your best players to rise to the occasion and, after a dud a year ago at Saginaw, got that and more here in Rimouski. Article content The OHL champs won their record-tying third Cup title in their fifth trip to the final in the past 20 years. Dale Hunter equalled Don Hay as the only two coaches with three CHL crowns. Article content The Knights were ready for anything. They didn't let any missed call or lapse in momentum bother them. They were the best team in junior hockey this year and proved it when it mattered most. Article content 'It's a tough tournament,' said London defenceman Sam Dickinson, who earned three assists in the final. 'It's one game. You never know what can happen going into it. I think of last year and how the game went from the flat start to the comeback to 22 seconds left. You can't have any idea of what's going to happen out there.' Article content The Tigers' best player, Gavin McKenna, got the Western champs on the board in the third period. But a second goal by the wunderkind was called back because of a missed high stick with 5:30 left in regulation. Article content It was a break for the Knights and they shut it down from there. Article content Hunter reunited Easton Cowan and Denver Barkey and it turned into a master stroke. Article content Article content Barkey scored twice in the decisive second period and Cowan had another and was named tournament MVP as London built the four-goal lead. Cowan should have had two, as well, in the middle frame but one was snuffed out on a goalie interference call against linemate Sam O'Reilly. Article content The foundation of the Knights' three-year run of success started with the drafting of Barkey, Cowan and Oliver Bonk in 2021. Once they added Dickinson to the mix the following season, they were on their way. Article content London goaltender Austin Elliott's final won-loss record? He was 55-3 in his last junior season. We won't see that again for a long time, if ever … Cowan entered the final one point shy of his childhood idol Mitch Marner's franchise record 15 points in Cup play and matched it in the second period … Londoner Jacob Julien, the Jets prospect, played his best hockey of the season at this tournament, opening the scoring on a nifty deke … Earlier in the day, Medicine Hat star defenceman Tanner Molendyk described London as the best team he had faced all year. 'They have a lot of skill but when a team works hard and has skill, it's one of the hardest things to beat,' the Nashville Predators first-rounder said. He felt it and the rest of the hockey world saw it up close this week.
Associated Press
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Associated Press
London Knights beat Medicine Hat Tigers 4-1 for 3rd Memorial Cup title
RIMOUSKI, Quebec (AP) — Philadelphia Flyers prospect Denver Barkey scored twice in the second period and the London Knights beat the Medicine Hat Tigers 4-1 on Saturday night for their third Memorial Cup title. Jacob Julien and Easton Cowan also scored and Austin Elliott made 31 saves to help the Ontario Hockey League champion Knights win the junior hockey championship a year after losing in the final to host Saginaw. After a 3-1 loss to Western Hockey League champion Medicine Hat on Tuesday night in round-robin play, London beat Moncton 5-2 on Friday night in the semifinal game to set up the rematch with the Tigers. London also won the Memorial Cup in 2005 and 2016. The Knights are owned by former NHL players Dale and Mark Hunter and Basil McRea, with Dale Hunter serving as president and coach and Mark Hunter as general manager. Dale Hunter won his third title to match former Kamloops and Vancouver coach Don Hay's record. Medicine Hat star Gavin McKenna spoiled Elliott's shutout bid early in the third period, and Harrison Meneghin stopped 20 shots for the Tigers. They won the Memorial Cup in 1987 and 1988. Julien opened the scoring midway through the first period. Cowan, a first-round pick by Toronto, and Barkey scored in a 1:40 span early in the second and Barkey made it 4-0 on a power play with 7:52 left in the period. ___ AP sports:
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Victoria Royals lose two top players to NCAA's North Dakota — what's next for WHL?
Jeff Marek's Thursday podcast that broached the idea of junior teams finding sponsors to pay star players sounded a little over the top. A day later, it became less far fetched. On Friday, the news broke that Victoria Royals centre Cole Reschny, 18, and defenceman Keaton Verhoeff, 16, were both giving up multiple years of junior eligibility to join the University of North Dakota Fighting Hawks in the fall. Reschny could winding up going in the first round of this summer's NHL Draft, while Verhoeff might be a top-five selection in 2026. The Royals won the WHL's B.C. Division this past season and looked to be continuing in the right direction. How they regroup after Friday's news is anyone's guess. The NCAA announced in November that it was opening up scholarship opportunities to players from Major Junior leagues like the WHL for the coming season and the buzz around 17-year-old phenom Gavin McKenna of the Medicine Hat Tigers making that move started up instantly. The Tigers play the London Knights for the Memorial Cup national title Sunday in Rimouski. McKenna could hoist the most prized trophy in junior hockey in this country, and moments later be asked in a media scrum about whether he's leaving for the American collegiate system. Various junior hockey people over the season have concurred that McKenna was in play to go to the NCAA, but they treated it as him being an outlier, the very tip of the top one per cent of players in the WHL. The thinking was that collegiate teams would want graduating 20-year-olds and the odd 19-year-old, in large part because they recruited players of that age when the Junior A ranks were their main feeder. Junior hockey's biggest selling point is the chance for fans to watch draft eligible players and world junior team candidates. Guess what? The NCAA isn't any different. There will be no better marketing for North Dakota than when Verhoeff is one of the first few names mentioned two drafts from now. And NCAA programs like North Dakota believe those high-end youngsters can compete against 22- and 23-year-olds. Reschny and Verhoeff would have been in the top-five per cent of WHL players this coming season. There have been other underage players declare for schools as well. How deep will the NCAA end up taking from when all is said and done? Ten per cent? Will it get to 20 per cent? This new way of life for hockey development was a topic on Marek's The Sheet podcast earlier in the week, when QMJHL commissioner Mario Cecchini was a guest. Marek asked Cecchini point blank whether the teams in the QMJHL, WHL and OHL should consider paying players. 'Well, right now we have a student/athlete status, so we have to be very, very, very careful about that,' Cecchini said. 'But there are sponsoring possibilities. So the teams right now, as we speak, cannot pay them directly, but can a local automotive dealer sponsor a player directly? That's doable and that's possible. That's within the framework that we live in. That's where we may want to turn our hats. 'It's probably one player per team at most. Call them a franchise player, for example, for a term that we know well in sports.' The irony is that they'd have to get it approved by the NCAA so that players can keep their college eligibility. You would think the NCAA would oblige, considering that they're doing exactly that with their Name Image Likeness (NIL) program. For hockey, this a major rethink, and hockey rarely has been one for major rethinks, and that includes in junior. The WHL went from 72-game regular seasons for its teams to 68-game ones in 2018-19 and that proved a much debated endeavour. For decades, the pitch to players from teams in the WHL was that they had a schedule similar to an NHL one, and that got you ready for the next level. The thinking is different now. Fewer games means more time to work on your skills, more time to work on your body in the gym. The Boston University Terriers, with Vancouver Canucks defence prospect Tom Willander helping to lead the way, went to the NCAA championship game as part of their 40 total games this season. Medicine Hat's showdown with London Sunday will mark their 90th game of the campaign. There's also the matter of facilities. North Dakota's Ralph Engelstad Arena features a 1,400 square foot altitude chamber added to its weight room arena in 2021. That's an extreme, but it gives you an idea of what the WHL teams are now competing against. They'll need to find a way. 'For me, North Dakota was top-of-the-line,' Verhoeff told the Grand Forks Gazette. 'It's professional in every aspect of the training, the day-to-day, and the opportunity I was given there was too good to pass up. 'I checked out a couple of other schools. After looking at all the other great programs and schools, North Dakota is the one that spoke to me and I felt at home there.' Verhoeff, who turns 17 in June, is a 6-foot-4, 212-pound right-handed shot and had 21 goals and 45 points in 63 regular season games with the Royals. He finished his high school commitments early. The Athletic's Scott Wheeler had him at No. 5 in a 2026 mock draft he did in April. The 5-foot-10, 187-pound, left-shot Reschny put up 26 goals and 92 points in 62 regular season games with Victoria. Elite Prospects has him at No 22 in its consolidated rankings for this year's draft, led by a No. 13 from TSN's Craig Button. Left-shot McKenna, who's 6-foot and 165 pounds, tallied 41 times and recorded 129 points in 56 regular season games with the Tigers. He then supplied nine goals and 38 points in 16 regular season games. He's, of course, the consensus projected No. 1 pick for 2026. One-time Canucks forward Byron Ritchie is McKenna's family adviser. He told Postmedia back in March that the NCAA was definitely an option, explaining how he worried about McKenna jumping from the WHL to the NHL after next season, which is what is expected. 'Going from playing 2009s, 2008s and 2007s (16- to 18-year-olds) if he stays, to playing the following year against men who are trying to feed their families and where every puck battle is life or death,' Ritchie said. 'It's a massive step from the Western League to the NHL. Can you ease that transition by having him playing next year against 22- and 23-year-olds?' @SteveEwen SEwen@
