To The Hosts Go The Spoils!

I was on the road today as I visited the bustling metropolis of Neepawa, Manitoba for work. While Neepawa is known for the Krzyzaniak sisters, Shane Hnidy, and the MJHL's Neepawa Titans in the hockey world, there's great pride in the city as everyone is quick with a hockey story whenever a relevant player or fact is mentioned. Seeing the QMJHL's Saint John Sea Dogs and the OHL's Hamilton Bulldogs battle for Canadian junior hockey supremacy in the Memorial Cup Final tonight made me realize how important these hockey identities are to their communities.

Since 1983 when the format for the Memorial Cup tournament changed, the host teams have won Memorial Cup 11 times - 28.9% of the time. Of those 11 host teams who won, only three won their respective league's championship prior to hosting the Memorial Cup tournament. It's almost as if hosting the tournament matters more than being one of the three league champions when it comes to a team's chances of winning the Memorial Cup, so we'll have to see if this format continues to favour good teams that get some rest thanks to an early playoff exit.

Saint John became the 11th host team to win the Memorial Cup after they defeated the Hamilton Bulldogs tonight as they were cheered on by a raucous Saint John crowd. It should be noted that the Sea Dogs were expected to challenge for the QMJHL title this season, but were unexpectedly upset in the opening round of the QMJHL playoffs. As they lied in wait for the rest of the CHL to crown its winners, they got healthy, they practiced, and they prepared well.

Head coach Gordie Dwyer was fired on May 22, replaced by long-time UNB Varsity Reds head coach Gardiner MacDougall, and the Sea Dogs went to work as they looked to erase the stinging memory of their upset at the hands of the Rimouski Oceanic. MacDougall admitted that he worked the Sea Dogs "as hard as I have ever worked a team", but it seems the buy-in and the effort were both immensely present as Saint John looked to erase that playoff failure.

Captain Vincent Sevigny scored early and Cam MacDonald doubled the lead minutes later as Saint John used the "score early and score often" idea in the final just as they had throughout the tournament. Hamilton's Mason McTavish cut the lead to one goal when he scored 7:45 into the opening frame, but Saint John goaltender Nikolas Hurtubise, acquired from the Victoriaville Tigres at the trade deadline, steadied the Sea Dogs after surrendering the goal.

Sant John used the "score early" idea in the second period again as Riley Bezeau's shot found room past Marco Costantini with all sorts of traffic going to the net after a turnover at the Saint John blue line.

You can't tell me that playing in front of that very pro-Saint John crowd wouldn't fire you up if you were a member of the Sea Dogs. Look at the support and listen to the cheering. That's a fantastic showing by the host city, but it also might be why host teams do so well - firing up the home team isn't hard with a great community like Saint John behind them!

34 seconds later, it was 4-1 when William Dufour teed up a Ryan Francis pass, hammering it past Costantini as the early goals once again took the wind out of Hamilton's sails. They'd finally respond with nine seconds left in the frame as Jan Mysak found room past Hurtubise, but the damage was done as Saint John was twenty minutes from their second Memorial Cup celebration as they held a 4-2 lead.

Josh Lawrence scored six minutes into the third period to make it a 5-2 Saint John lead before McTavish added his second goal of the final to cut the lead to two goals. However, Peter Reynolds iced the game with 1:17 left as he scored on Hamilton's empty net to make it a 6-3 game as the Saint John Sea Dogs earned their second Memorial Cup in franchise history!

"It is amazing," Sevigny said after the game. "It was a lot of hard work and the work paid off. To have this is the best day of our lives."

"We have worked so hard and I am so, so proud," Hurtubise added. "We knew that we worked too hard in the past month to not win it. We earned it."

Saint John certainly did earn it, and it speaks volumes about their preparation in the month they had prior to the Memorial Cup starting. Gardiner MacDougall certainly had his players playing their best hockey in some time, and it's not easy to institute new systems and a new attitude in a month. Credit needs to be given to both the coaching staff and the players for coming together so quickly to be able to do something special at Canadian junior hockey's biggest tournament.

Something that shouldn't be forgotten, though, is that the fans in Saint John were incredible all week whenever the Sea Dogs took the ice. Not unlike Neepawa, a strong, passionate, loud arena can do more to fire up a team than one may realize, so this Memorial Cup win is certainly a championship that was earned by the community as much as the players. The city of Saint John should be proud of its efforts in helping their team to victory!

Congratulations to the Saint John Sea Dogs, your 2022 Memorial Cup champions!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!