Memorial Cup: Benn, Rockets shoot for championship
/Andrew's Dallas Stars Page
Dallas Stars prospect Jamie Benn will play the final game of his junior hockey career on a big stage. Benn and his Kelowna Rockets will battle the Windsor Spitfires for the Memorial Cup on Sunday.
"My time here has gone by pretty quick,” Benn told the Kelowna Daily Courier. “It‘s been a heck of a ride, and there‘s no better position to be in than playing for the Memorial Cup.”
The Rockets haven't played since falling to Windsor on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the Spitfires, who had their backs to the wall after losing their first two games of the tournament, won three games in four days to advance to the championship game.
It will be a game featuring a Spitfires team on a roll against a Rockets team that will have not played a game in four days when they take the ice.
"Whether or not they got on a roll since they played us is irrelevant," Rockets coach Ryan Huska told the Canadian Press. "It's one-game situation now and whoever has more discipline and more emotional control will come out on the winning side.
"We've had a chance to watch Windsor play a few times now. I don't think there's anything fancy or special about how they play. They've got a good group of forwards and defensemen and a goaltender who stops pucks. But what makes them hard to play against is that they compete so hard."
Kelowna won its first two games of the tournament and already had secured a berth in Sunday's championship game when they played the Spitfires, who were in desperation mode after those two losses to open the tournament.
“They’ve been playing for their lives the last three games,” Benn told Sun Media. “We know how they play and we’ve watched their last few games on TV. We didn’t play very well when we had a chance to knock them out and hopefully, we bring more energy today. There’s no reason we shouldn’t.”
Memorial Cup Notes
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Either Kelowna's Jamie Benn and Tyler Myers or Windsor defenseman Ryan Ellis will pull off the junior hockey double, which is winning the Memorial Cup and gold at the World Junior Championship in the same season.
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Although he's played only three games, Benn continues to lead the tournament with five goals and is tied for the tournament lead in points with eight.
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Windsor coach Bob Boughner was named the Canadian Hockey League Coach of the Year on Saturday.
Sunday's game
Windsor vs. Kelowna, 3:30 pm CT (NHL Network - US)
Saturday's game
No game scheduled
Scoring leaders
| Rk | Player | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | PIM |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jamie Benn | Kelowna | 3 | 5 | 3 | 8 | 2 |
| 2 | Yannick Riendeau | Drummondville | 4 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 2 |
| 3 | Adam Henrique | Windsor | 5 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 11 |
| 4 | Taylor Hall | Windsor | 5 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 8 |
| 5 | Andrei Loktionov | Windsor | 5 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 0 |
| 6 | Greg Nemisz | Windsor | 5 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 2 |
| 7 | Dale Mitchell | Windsor | 5 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 2 |
| Jamie Benn Memorial Cup Game Log | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 5/23: Idle. Kelowna plays Sunday in the
championship game against the winner of Friday's
Windsor-Drummondville semifinal game. 5/19: Had no points, three shots on goal, a minus-one rating and two penalty minutes in a 2-1 loss to Windsor in the final game of round-robin play. 5/18: Benn scored four goals, including the game-winner, and assisted on one other as the Rockets beat Drummondville 6-4. He was a plus-three and had five shots on goal. The four goals was one short of the single-game record for the tournament, which was set in 1975 by current Washington coach Bruce Boudreau. 5/15: Had one goal, two assists, five shots on goal and a plus-two rating in a 4-1 win over Rimouski. He scored a power play goal, knocking home the rebound of a Tyler Myers shot from the point. Was named the No. 1 star of the game.
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